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See the original image at news.bbc.co.uk

US army develops robotic suits

news.bbc.co.uk — This is still just a prototype.

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  • Densonlad, on 04/17/2008, -24/+13Hell Yeah Go Army!!
    chant with me now...
    U.S.A! U.S.A! U.S.A! U.S.A! U.S.A! U.S.A! U.S.A! U.S.A! U.S.A! U.S.A!
    • CyborgBodyArmor, on 04/17/2008, -15/+0This is very good too bad they are not telling us more about what the are really doing or how far along they are with it. www.cyborgonline.com
    • dastardlydud, on 04/17/2008, -3/+23AMERICA, ***** YEAH!
      • gn0stik, on 04/17/2008, -5/+1You spelled that wrong.

        It's

        'MERICA, ***** YA!!

        no big deal, you just left it un Texasified.
        • dastardlydud, on 04/18/2008, -1/+2Yeah, I mess with Texas, what now?
    • xptoast, on 04/17/2008, -6/+3It's all good until they turn on their own people with it. I wasn't affraid until they started making this kind of stuff that can be placed into cities ready to enforce any things they want the public to do. Armored robotic police...that's going to suck.
  • Schleiden, on 04/17/2008, -16/+1In a word, interesting.
    • mattwalton56, on 04/17/2008, -3/+4...that was four words...
      • xptoast, on 04/17/2008, -5/+3It was only one word. In a word was to describe how many words it was going to take to describe the feelings on the subject. The word being : interesting. You suck at English.
    • dastardlydud, on 04/17/2008, -5/+3In a word, epic fa-- damn...
  • Ruler4you, on 04/17/2008, -11/+5If we're ever attacked by a bunch of punching bags I'll call 'em.
  • Gandalff, on 04/17/2008, -10/+3Sign me up I need one of those for around the HOUSE
  • URnotheonly1, on 04/17/2008, -19/+6How else do we protect ourselves from the 4.5 billion freaks in this world. Makes a Million man army kind of useless (china)
  • arichard, on 04/17/2008, -1/+88SCV good to go sir
    • Sinai, on 04/17/2008, -1/+19A surprisingly good point, I expect robot suits to be adapted to use in noncombat roles long before they're useful in combat. After all, a man in an exoskeleton is dead just the same when shot through the chest.
      • Xanium4332, on 04/17/2008, -1/+14Yeah, but the exoskeleton can carry on fighting, using the man as a shield...

        On a serious note, look closely in the second video in the background, you'll see the exoskeleton moving all by itself.
        • xptoast, on 04/17/2008, -0/+1Exoskeletons can carry armor and heavier Amory setups. We all are screwed if they come after the public with these.
        • sienar, on 04/17/2008, -0/+2yeah, they explained that in the article, it was keeping it's hydraulic fluid moving, they noted that it looked as if it were treading water
        • TheCasablancan, on 04/17/2008, -1/+6I'd imagine that you could program one of the skeletons for a "Follow Mode", that would take a wounded/unconscious soldier back to his FOB or the nearest medical station or simply follow other personnel if they were in a combat zone.
      • BoneheadFarker, on 04/17/2008, -0/+3How about we learn from that and include body armour. Or say a bullet-proof enclosure maybe? I'll even take ***** chainmail, just don't put a guy in a multi-million dollar battlesuit armed to the ***** and leave the operator completely exposed...
        • TheCasablancan, on 04/17/2008, -0/+1Do you remember the battle suits in the Animatrix's Second Rennisance? Something like that would be excellent.
          • thomasthecat, on 04/18/2008, -0/+2Unless we're fighting giant robots, of course...
      • punkcat, on 04/17/2008, -0/+1this isn't directly for combat actually, its heavy lifting. so you're right.
        • Sinai, on 04/18/2008, -0/+1But of course it's considered a stepping stone to combat worthy exoskeletons.
      • Hobbes24, on 04/17/2008, -0/+2actually with all that extra strength, i could see it being outfited with super tough armor that a man couldn't carry, maybe even tank plating or reactive armor
    • Sogui, on 04/17/2008, -1/+4Yea but the man with the exoskeleton can also hold a huge ass gun, and that alone makes it worth it.
    • Dohko_Xar, on 04/17/2008, -0/+1someone called for an exterminator?
    • FreckleEars, on 04/17/2008, -4/+1Sir, request permission to leave the station.
      For what purpose, Master Chief?
      To give the Covenant back their bomb!
      • learn2, on 04/17/2008, -1/+0I think "this reminds me of Master Chief" would have been funnier.
    • Vodd9, on 04/18/2008, -0/+1Dammit, I came to the comment section to write "packed up and ready to go" but it would have sounded lame after yours.
    • SuperWinner, on 04/18/2008, -0/+1I hope they get to use these during some type of crysis
    • S1ngular1ty1, on 04/18/2008, -0/+1Check this out, much better than the original link.

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYWd2C3XVIk
  • Sinai, on 04/17/2008, -8/+3I wonder which will develop effectively first for infantry combat, powersuits or just remote controlled robots.

    My money is on the robots....if they're remote controlled at all.
  • poidh, on 04/17/2008, -10/+6Nanosuits from Crysis would be cooler.
    • OrangeSoda31, on 04/17/2008, -0/+5But can it play Crysis?
      • Seantacular, on 04/17/2008, -1/+1LOL maybe with AA turned off and a resolution of 800x600 with settings set to Medium.
    • Harbinger67, on 04/18/2008, -1/+2Reality does not yet have the power to process real-life Crysis.
    • worldchanger, on 04/18/2008, -2/+1go! outside!
    • poidh, on 04/18/2008, -0/+1Ummmm, I just meant that Crysis-like nanosuits would be the best. Damn pedantic dorks.
  • Jovensdesciple, on 04/17/2008, -8/+2I've had one of those for years. I got it from the "Starship Troopers" catalogue.
    • KMye, on 04/18/2008, -1/+1Well, you've gone and spoiled any use good use of the reference with a pretty weak one, but I dugg you up anyway, since I think most of your buries are probably from children who think it was just a movie they vaguely remember (having no suits) that came out when they were 5 years old...
  • aphonik, on 04/17/2008, -10/+4We can rebuild him!
  • CDoug03, on 04/17/2008, -14/+3This story is older than my balls
    • Satanael, on 04/17/2008, -0/+19So they just dropped today?
      • airiox, on 04/18/2008, -0/+1clever, but this footage was shot over 6 months ago and aired on the local news here. The BBC is that late to the party?
    • mdcraig62, on 04/17/2008, -0/+5Zing!
    • worldchanger, on 04/18/2008, -0/+1...which is saying a lot, I assume.
  • Archcoder, on 04/17/2008, -9/+2so now were going to have a bunch of halos running around? i want power armor
    • Picaroon, on 04/17/2008, -0/+6archcoder thinks halo is a pretty cool guy. eh runs around and doesnt afraid of anything
  • dtr18c, on 04/17/2008, -8/+0This looks cool but show me an autonomous robot then I'll really be impressed.
  • RedForLife, on 04/17/2008, -6/+37Made in China.
  • Scottievm, on 04/17/2008, -9/+1Instead of making pseudo-superhero suits, why don't they spend more money coming up with an efficient and effective way of countering IED's (roadside bombs)?
    • mattwalton56, on 04/17/2008, -1/+2...becuase pseudo-superhero suits are cool
    • Picaroon, on 04/17/2008, -0/+2Because Iraq is drawing to a close, they already have and are trying to get more MRAPs, and fighting the last war, etc.
  • mattwalton56, on 04/17/2008, -6/+8...iron man?
    • mdcraig62, on 04/17/2008, -1/+7now with Tony Stark's new built in beer bong.
  • eddy23170, on 04/17/2008, -9/+2dugg for interesting English commercial....a to zed
    • TheNik, on 04/18/2008, -0/+1Not really interesting. Zed is how they pronounce the letter Z singularly.
  • Satanael, on 04/17/2008, -9/+3Well, after seeing this, I now know that the war in Iraq has been well worth it. The added military funding has brought my childhood dreams to life. Dugg. Favorited.
  • TheAbdBoy, on 04/17/2008, -7/+0ROBOCOP!
  • MoofTheStoof, on 04/17/2008, -8/+10On the bounce, you apes! Mobile Infantry! (The suits were in Heinlein's original masterpiece, not that pathetic movie...)
    • DifferentAngle, on 04/18/2008, -1/+5Diggers dont do enough reading to know what you're talking about - the mobile infantry are definitely what comes to mind though.
    • Deveak, on 04/18/2008, -0/+2I gave you a digg, i read the book, its amazing, stay frosty!
    • Chomprel, on 04/18/2008, -1/+0That was a pretty good movie actually...
      "Waaaah...it wasnt exactly like the book!"
      Don't you mean "wasn't" ?
      • MoofTheStoof, on 04/18/2008, -0/+1Actually it was very little like the book. Not only in details, but in tone. They were two completely different stories that shared a few character and place names. I actually enjoyed the movie, but only after I realized it had very little relation to the original Heinlein masterpiece. And it is a one of the masterpieces of Science Fiction.
      • DifferentAngle, on 04/18/2008, -0/+0Yeah, I don't exactly remember the movie to be much of a social/political commentary.
    • Sinnic, on 04/18/2008, -0/+3Shines the name, shines the name of Roger Young.
    • KMye, on 04/18/2008, -0/+3jesus christ, even references to ST explaining why they're applicable are getting dugg down, huh? It's not like I'm old enough to remember when the book came out... wtf did they start putting in baby formula after 1990?
  • MegaSchwiller, on 04/17/2008, -6/+1Apparently the army is using Technine snowboard bindings in their robot suites.
  • macweirdo42, on 04/17/2008, -7/+13The army - protecting us from Nazis, Communists, terrorists, and now Xenomorphs. Let's rock!!!
    • Peko, on 04/18/2008, -0/+1That's it man, game over man, game over! What the ***** are we gonna do now? What are we gonna do?
  • Pherdnut, on 04/17/2008, -7/+5You'd have to have some pretty powerful servos to carry armor thick enough for a decent combat version. Even then I wonder if you wouldn't be more of a liability. It seems like they can build bullets to pierce just about any kind of armor when they put their minds to it and you'd have a pretty big profile.
    • TheNik, on 04/18/2008, -1/+1They? The terrorists? Since when are they the lively and brilliant weapons engineers you are making them seem like? :P
      • JrGhoull, on 04/18/2008, -0/+2i see your silly face but i dont quite get the joke that you are attempting to make. they art brilliant engineers but they are resourceful and are using more low tech technology (such as cellphones) a lot more diligently and creatively than we are able to use our latest and "greatest" technology. and pherdnut is right...but only to a point. if this was basically the model that they were going to use...then this would be something along the lines of the next tank. useful and deadly as all hell, but every enemy within range is going to be shooting at the poor sod. however the model that they hope to have in 8 years will not be the end all to be all armor. the government truly does have its hopes set on a halo-ish armor. That being the case, they are going to find different ways to produce the results that they want. a small armor that makes soldiers faster, stronger and more in tuned with everything that is going on.
  • punkcat, on 04/17/2008, -7/+6were a step closer to finally mobilizing our army of rockem sockem robots
  • surfrdawg, on 04/17/2008, -5/+18I'm not interested until he shoots missiles from his wrist
  • jarjarbinx, on 04/17/2008, -10/+0It pales in comparison with Japanese prototypes. This video shows the Japanese had been ahead of us in this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynL8BCXih8U
    • RunnyBabbit, on 04/17/2008, -1/+7Gotta love the LEDs on the arms. That is totally useful.
  • HanzBrix, on 04/17/2008, -6/+6Anyone else notice the volume on the BBC video player goes to 11? That alone makes this digg worthy.
  • GrodyChamp, on 04/17/2008, -7/+1There is hope for Digg. No blaytant anti-military comments yet. I can't believe it.
  • MattNF, on 04/17/2008, -10/+2These comments suck.
    • j3ff86, on 04/17/2008, -2/+2You know something? You suck!
      -Billy Madison
  • mitrovarr, on 04/17/2008, -6/+1Call me when they have one that works without a power cable or a hydraulic line.
  • Atom, on 04/17/2008, -5/+2Exosquad Baby
  • sumokitty, on 04/17/2008, -4/+8this is wayyyyyyyyyyy old
    i think there was an article about this in the fall or summer
  • ShempRider, on 04/17/2008, -4/+5"Get away from her, you BITCH!"
    • copypastry, on 04/18/2008, -1/+4dugg up for RIPLEY
    • Cleremond, on 04/18/2008, -0/+0Ripley: "I sorta feel like a fifth wheel around here. Is there anything I can do?"
      Apone: "I don't know...is there anything you can do?"
      Ripley: "Well....i can drive that loader. I have a class 2 rating."
      Apone (chomping on his cigar): "Be my guest"

      *Ripley proficiently climbs in and activates the power loader and expertly grabs a crate of ammunition*

      Ripley (smuggley): "Where ya want it?"
      Apone (laughing): "Bay 12, please."
  • FelixdaaHack, on 04/17/2008, -3/+2Not this story again. The last time this was on digg the video showed the guy lifting heavy weights.
  • Sogui, on 04/17/2008, -4/+3My purpose in life is to live long enough to see robot battle suits in action.

    (Also space wars)
  • mdcraig62, on 04/17/2008, -4/+2good article in Pop Science this month on the subject...check it out...
  • krnldmp, on 04/17/2008, -7/+5"Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes." When men fought men.
  • geneticlone, on 04/17/2008, -4/+1now they can get my kitty down from the tree...
    /pun
    • toxicshok, on 04/17/2008, -0/+1thanks god you said /pun, I couldn't tell
  • JulioHJ, on 04/17/2008, -6/+3Man...it's always "still just a prototype."
  • lastminute, on 04/17/2008, -5/+3video needs more rocky theme
  • UtahApocalyse, on 04/17/2008, -8/+1Amazingly I scooped this 149 days ago, and it only got 9 diggs:

    http://digg.com/security/Robotic_System_Giving_Sol ...
  • geneticlone, on 04/17/2008, -5/+2Why don't they spend some money making some decent armored suits for our troops in iraq?
    • mitrovarr, on 04/17/2008, -1/+4The same reason that has stopped them from making these for years - nobody's figured out a decent power supply for them. You'll notice it's trailing a fat hydraulic cable in the videos. When you start to include a large bank of batteries or an engine, and maybe a hydraulic compressor, they become very heavy and slow. In the end so much agility is lost that you end up defeating the point of not using a vehicle.
    • Sinnic, on 04/18/2008, -0/+1BITCH MORE.
  • petard, on 04/17/2008, -4/+3Maximum Stength
    • headband, on 04/18/2008, -0/+2Cloak Engaged

      the people digging you down are just bitter they can't run crysis
  • s4g4n, on 04/17/2008, -2/+7Sarah Connor does not approve.
  • hocusposus, on 04/17/2008, -2/+1when that suit can turn into a motorcycle for me to ride, then ill be impressed.
  • mickstephenson, on 04/17/2008, -2/+1"With the exoskeleton on and fully powered up, Rex can easily pull down weight of more than 90 kilos, more than he weighs. "
    Amazing, so when he tries to pull down a weight more than himself, he fails and instead does a few pull ups.
    but with the weight of the exoskeleton he miraculously manages to pull down the weight, could that not be achieved with his feet attached to a couple of sandbags?
    If he managed to pull down a weight which was more than him + the exoskeleton then I'd be impressed, but also disillusioned with the forces of physics.
    • buschwacker, on 04/18/2008, -1/+2You're not as smart as you think you are. He's more massive and stronger to go with it; that's the point of the demonstration of him pulling down 90kg. If he had his feet attached to sandbags, or whatever, he probably could not have pulled down 90kg. The point of the suit is to enable people to lift heavier objects without fatigue and the demo certainly demonstrated that.
      • mickstephenson, on 04/18/2008, -1/+1Oh ffs you are not as smart as you think you if if you think that is an adequate retort, or if you think that I didn't realise that the suit gave him extra strength. The point is that he couldn't possibly lift a 90kg weight by pulling down on it if he ways less than 90kg, I WASN'T DISPUTING THE SUIT I AM DISPUTING THE STATEMENT YOU *****.
  • masterwalls69, on 04/17/2008, -4/+2Lord have mercy..how are we going to stop that when the government starts using on them us? www.infowars.com Because there is a war on your mind.
    • Peko, on 04/18/2008, -0/+1Ok AJ fellating tin foil hat fan boy; of all the things to be paranoid about, tethered version 0.1 robosuits are not at the top of the god damned list.
  • loopyloopy, on 04/17/2008, -1/+2great idea. should work well for all those wars fought close to power points
    • Peko, on 04/18/2008, -0/+2Really long extension cords. It's all good man =)
  • ePuck, on 04/17/2008, -2/+1Luke... I am your father
  • krolm, on 04/17/2008, -6/+3AMERICA ***** YEAH!!!
    • AustinMeoang, on 04/17/2008, -2/+1comin' again to save the ***** day yeah!
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