Real "Iron Man" Armor

Often science fiction becomes science fact. I love the idea of "Iron Man" - a suit that protects wearer and turns one man into an army. True to the tradition of Marvel Comics, its not just about the technology or "super powers", its the character of the man wearing the armor from which the drama and stories flow. Amazingly, there are real companies in the United States and Japan that are developing real technology depicted in Iron Man. Unfortunately, neither exoskeletonal suit allows the user to fly or seemingly have built-in weapons. But what they do offer to their wearers is amplified strength, endurance, and protection. Here is a run-down on some of the devices.

Japan's HAL Armor.
"HAL" stands for "Hybrid Assistive Limb" robot suit. Here is some information I found on the Internet.

The fifteen kilogram battery-powered suit detects muscle movements through electrical signal flows on the skin surface. These currents are picked up by the sensors and sent to the computer, which translates the nerve signals into signals of its own for controlling electric motors at the hips and knees of the exoskeleton, effectively amplifying muscle strength. HAL stands for "hybrid assistive limb"; HAL-5 is the latest version of the suit.

I found out that the suit is near to go into production for sale! They want to make 500 available to sale. It is designed to be used in hospitals for moving patients. The trippy part is that the name of division of Daiwa House that will develop the suits called "Cyberdyne". Reminds me of the name of the computer that nearly exterminates humanity in the Terminator series. Creepy, but the suit looks good. Here is a video.



Sarcos XOS Exoskeleton
I found the following about the Sarcos exoskeleton on the Internet

The Sarcos XOS exoskeleton is an impressive device. The suit allows the user to endlessly pull weight; two hundred-pound pulldowns are easy. The user of the suit feels only about ten of those two hundred pounds. Picking up and moving 70 pound cannisters is just as easy. How does it work? The machine follows the movements of the user, sampling the user’s behavior thousands of times per second. A built-in computer performs the monitoring, and amplifies the user’s strength with the robotic exoskeleton

Here is a video of the Sarcos XOS Exoskeleton. And here is a great article on the Sarcos.



Out of the two..I think the Sarcos looks the best and most likely to have military and policing application.