Looks like the LockMart HULC exoskeleton platform is going to get some play coming up this month at the Association of the US Army’s winter conference down in Florida.
In anticipation, the company sent me a video of the HULC in its latest configuration.
As Rube Goldberg as these things seem, I’m sure this is the direction we’re heading to augment the power of the individual Soldier so he can carry an ever-increasing load. I mean, you saw Avatar, right?
– Christian
{ 65 comments… read them below or add one }
Is there Bible verses on these HULC exoskeleton platform?
definitely not.
I don't think this is going to fly in the Marines. I mean when I was in we humped everything and where given smack if we couldn't carry our load.
Overall, very cool but I want to see these in mud, dug in sand, and dug in clay and see how it works
I doubt they'll be using it to simply make your day as a marine a little easier since I'm sure it costs quite a bit.
It'll most likely be used in conjunction with wear additional high strength body armor, carrying way more ammo, UAV's, etc.
And with the Avatar comparison maybe a really huge gun making you a walking mini-tank.
"And with the Avatar comparison maybe a really huge gun making you a walking mini-tank. "
Now I think you have a solid idea…seriously
No wonder that the Marines have trouble finding their way around.
They are all having a good time on smack.
Is that why the USA is so determined to stay in Afghanistan?
Enquiring minds want to know.
" where ( sic ) given smack if we couldn't carry our load."
What is smack?
This is a prototype for a full mech-warrior type suit…
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3586/3593985895_e3…
Does it come with the girl in the picture too?
I hope so
Think they might be able to control these remotely?
I remember a few months back when they were doing the thing on this showed the built up armor idea which basicaly turned you into a walking tank…..wish i could find it.
Lets face it, they are designing this do the average grunt can carry a lot of stuff.
Which is bullshit.
We already have walk behind robots of varying sizes that could do this and keep up with solders in varying terrain, and they have a much longer range.
Or just throw the guy on a small ATV. They go anywhere and can carry lots of weight.
The only reason to use this system is to allow for more armor protection. Armor plates for the upper arms/legs; hands and most importantly head.
With this system troop could be fitted with a helmet that could take a direct face hit and the only thing that would happen is he would have to take some aspirin. Unlike today where they would be scooping his brains up.
Take multiple rounds from an AK and it would just make you pissed off.
That would be something. This technology could get us close to that…..
"Lets face it, they are designing this do the average grunt can carry a lot of stuff. "
Umm, yeah, isn't that pretty much exactly what they said in the vid?
"Which is ********. "
How is it ****** to want us to be able to carry 100+lbs easier in extremely rugged, high altitude terrain?
"We already have walk behind robots of varying sizes that could do this and keep up with solders in varying terrain, and they have a much longer range."
Seriously? Walk behind robots? What military do you belong to? I never saw one, in either Iraq or Afghanistan, and the only serious prototype I've heard of just got nixed.
ATVs are big, consume way to much fuel to be used in more than just a limited scouting role, and they make a hell of a lot of noise. And, no, they don't really go everywhere. A Soldier utilizing his LPC's can go far more places than any ATV, robot, or other vehicle can
As I have stated in the past, the solution to US casualty rates is to issue each soldier a Mk 6 Tiger Tank for his personal combat wardrobe.
These babies are cheap, Germany has lots of them in their secret Wehrmacht surplus underground warehouses.
The Tiger tanks should however be super camouflaged. That way the enemy won't ever detect them.
The chance of a terrorist AK-47 carrying Taliban murderer, killing a heroic US soldier while he conducted his dangerous mission inside his personal tank is minimal.
If this solution is not as successful as I hope it will be, the next step is to put each heroic US troop inside an old WW 2 Battleship turret.
I know it will be a bit of added weight, but the safety factor is what counts.
Welcome to the new and improved mobile US Army.
You have a good point there.
Safety uber alles.
Plus as someone suggests with that machinery, you could have lots of sex with the local girls.
This is, by the way an excellent way to build rap our with the locals.
They just love to have their daughters humped by a bunch of Americans.
All I can say is they better not ever expect me to wear one. I'd like to see their sample soldiers mount and dismount vehicles with that junk on.
How rare is titanium? Will there ever be enough to supply world demand?
Titanium is actually fairly common.
But to make it requires an air free environment. So lots of special manufacturing tools.
Once it is created, it is hard to work since it is so hard…..
That all adds up the cost…..
Aluminum used to be a precious metal (which is why the top of the Washington Monument is an Aluminum pyramid). The Hall process of refining the metal from ore made it cheap and plentiful.
At the moment, there is no 'Hall process for Titanium" so it's still an expensive and difficult refining process. However, as demand increases, more refining plants will be built and will reduce the cost of a pound of the stuff.
That being said, no single military program, either exo-skeleton or fighter plane will use as much Ti as the steelmaking industry – it's used in small amounts as an alloying element in some steel alloys. I believe China's steel industry is the single largest user of Titanium in the world.
Didn't know my mother was British…especially if her family fought in the AMERICAN REVOLUTION.
http://www.motorballer.org/images/shirow/id1/asc2…
If it ends up being anything like this, that might be pretty cool. I wonder if it'll end up being practical though…
Next will be a full suit of armor with mini-guns on each wrist and a couple thousand rounds in the back. :-)
The other exoskeleton prototype that we keep seeing footage of has a very noisy power source. I wonder what this one sounds like? I also wonder how much endurance it has at present.
For now it remains an "Ooh, neat, imagine what they could do with this after a few years of development" item but it certainly gives the imagination something to play with. I'd hate to see Robert Heinlein proven wrong about the utility of the Marauder suit.
Starship Troopers was exactly where my mind went. I'm assuming this thing has a power source. Imagine carrying a few hundreds pounds and your battery cuts out…
Power source is a lithium-ion battery pack, specially designed. It'll most likely be completely silent. The question is, how loud are the pneumatics of the actual exoskeleton itself?
Sigh and here i had read so few retard statments i thought they were all gone.
You do realize this is the future of Adult Walkers for old people.
It's also the future for kids like my son, who has cerebral palsy. It would take significant effort to get past the neurological deficits, but even modest improvements in strength and stability would be of enormous benefit.
The last thing that the USA needs are more aged senile adults walking around parking lots and shopping centers.
They should stay where they belong.
Wheel chairs, at great cost, were made almost exclusively for the these doddering old drooling gimps.
But yet they are allowed to wander and lurk about, always with an attorney in tow, waiting to sue some innocent tax payer just because he slightly ran over the doddering old fart in a public parking lot..
Power density is going to be make or break for these things
Suppossedly, battery will last 72 hours +
How about a few rounds from a few liars?
As long its cheap, silent, it doesnt break easily from rust and constant use and powerfull, why not?
By the way will it withstand any IED attack or explosion?
Probably much better than un-assisted human beings would. Larger IEDs can knock out heavily armored MBTs and APCs, so of course this thing isn't going to protect very well against that level of destruction. But then again, after having added a decent amount of armor, this thing could probably save lives, versus many less-powerful bombs.
Good information here. I enjoyed reading this and can’t wait for more. Keep up the good work.
Looks more like some thing from S.T.A.L.K.E.R. than Avatar.
http://stalker.wikia.com/wiki/Exoskeleton
The Army can have their “Stuff” But as for Marines, we make do without. That is why we are the fighting force we are today.
-Semper Fidelis
Semper Fi brother! Add some extra padding to our ILBE packs and I'll consider that a decent advancement in Corps tech. If the Army can't hack walking a few miles with a few pounds on their backs then tough cookies, keep em back behind the wire.
I know the Marines are not going to use this new future stuff. But hey I'll say that this is a good start for future warfare. I'm going to be A Marine but I think this is some good stuff, and yeah they have their pride and honor but hey it's the 21st Century and who knows maybe there will be flying cars in 100 – 150 years from now.
This "exoskeleton" scares the hell out of me! If you consider the weight of the skeleton, the weight of all your gear and your own body weight hitting the rough ground because you slipped or someone shot at you and you dived for cover, or a round or shrapnel cuts a hydraulic line or a multitude of other possible mishaps you would be killed or maimed by your own equipment! If the Taliban or Al Queda are getting a load of this I'll bet they're laughing their collective rear ends off!
Actually at Headquarters Marine Corps we currently ARE testing and evaluating this particular piece of gear. As far as weight, the suit takes on the burden of its own weight and folds compactly for storage. It doesn't impede normal movement in anyway. Also for all those concerned…the suit still will bear the load once power is cut. I think battery power is up to 72 hours currently. It's not a fantasy. It'll be out there sooner than you would expect.
"Exoskeleton"….something else to malfunction and leave you with several hundred pounds of junk to take care of.
I can see this having the potential to make lives easier in some cases. Case in point, the whole reason we are going through the hullabaloo of coming up with a new M240 model because the Bravo is to heavy, then coming up with a way to make carrying it and extra ammo, etc. easier makes sense. But based on this video, it's not even remotely close to enough to leave this system at this. The thing that worries me about this design is the fact that while it provides leg support, there isn't anything for the arms. So what I'd like to know is, what happens when you go prone? They've already said the thing weighs about 150 pounds plus what ever else you would be carrying. Not only would you have none of that extra support, but getting up again would be a bitch and a half. On a side note, this thing would also probably render thigh holsters obsolete, to keep from tangling with the gear, but that probablly wouldn't be that big of an issue.
Doesn't weigh 150 pounds. Weighs around 50 actually.
just think of all the fat chicks you could hump day and night and not break a sweat. Two Viadra and this suit and you could screw the intire village.
Theres two different schools of thoughts going into this. This one is meant to be streamlined and man portable when needed. The other one ive seen is the one that they would put armor on and weapon systems.
http://www.raytheon.com/newsroom/technology/rtn08…
Nice. Equip it with body armor, AT4 Viper with rocket reload, M240 G Midium machinegun w/ unlimited magazine, 2 per batallion on the battlefield in afghanistan
How about this: Raytheon Sarcos Exoskeleton Robotic Suit Linked to Iron Man Superhero.
http://raytheon.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&…
Or this: http://ironmanmovie.marvel.com/
Honestly I don't see what Lockheed Martin brings to the table other than probably making it more expensive than it needs to be.
For those who have been following the development of exoskeletons, you'll possibly know that the "HULC" is really a piece of technology that was developed by Berkeley originally called the BLEEX. See here:
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=8e8_1236727945
To be honest, I saw this at an AUSA conference, except it was Berkeley who had the stand not LM, and I don't see how it has progress in the 5 years that I last saw it. So what IS LM then bringing to the table?? A more expensive price tag?
New Orleans Saints…..
Whatever happened to those sweet little radio controlled robot mechs with the mounted miniguns? Why send half man half machine onto the battlefield when we could just send a terminator?
Seems doable to me. Use this with UAV technology for the Command and Control
Being a software engineer, this scares me…
1) What is a software glich shoots your leg forward when you don't expect it? You fall down a hill with 200lbs on your back, at best… it breaks your leg, at worst… our your back.
2) What if power fails (frayed cable, corrosion, software crashes) and your carrying 200lbs+ up a steep hill. What if you're using the attachment to carry 700lbs? Call in the medivac…
future is future…
but at the end…
soldiers will put the flag on the hill..
so…what ever future brings…at the end…soldiers will finished job…
:-)
Dear administrator:
Marine1 said he was given smack, all I did was ask about some small details.
My questions concerning Marines being given smack are deleted, yet Marine1's statment about being given smack are not.
Is there a double standard here?
Sincerely,
Zandor
Wow! That has got to be the gayest commercial I have seen.. I mean the person who came up with this retarded idea should be fired!! Who the hell wants to wear/become a semi-robot.. F**K that. This looks like something out of ironman or other sci-fiction based movies. If anything, its just going to waste money and not really take off and leave the manufacturer(LH) profitng big from our losses.. BTW, i agree with the Software Engineer guy a few posts ago, as a CS student, this sounds like a disaster, lets just hope it never gets the light of day. Food for thought; How does this semi-robot help you carry 500+ extra lbs on your back?…hmm, sounds like BULLSH*T marketing once again..
Go read Robert Heinlein's novel "Starship Troopers". Yeah, I know about the movies – forget them. You will see how this exoskeletal suit should play out. He was a very practical engineer.
Agree with the previous posters regarding how much this could help those with serious mobility problems (e.g., cerebral palsey, stroke, car accident). So, HULC-like tech would definately be a plus in those cases.
–> Imagine a store having a row of HULCs in the front instead of scooters!?
Between the HULC and the Land Warrior developments, can a Marauder suit be that far away?
Power density issues ….. yikes. Still, given the amount of engineering time the world is pouring into battery technologies right now, it's good to see this stuff progress to exploit power breakthroughs as they happen in the future
Now mount the exoskeleton with armor to enclose the solider, with a heads up display mount in the helmet. You can increase the weight load significantly to increase endurance and the protection of the solider so in effect you have a totally enclosed body suit of armor able to stand up to small arms and environmental deterrents. And you now field a new class of weapon on the battle field.
i know that nobody desires for death, but i sometimes wonder how many injuries occur from trying to wrap a panzer tank around our troops. what would happen if opposition ripped magnatron out of microwave oven and powered up, it wil screwup electronic equipment. same as those mechanical pack mules, load supplies on it, enemy will knock it out first, removing sufficient essentials to operate. this would be better for post injury to help body mend and prevent more injuries from falling during therapy. i wonder how many diasabled could have fixes for something but disregarded because they are in wheelchair and ignored.
Actually at Headquarters Marine Corps we currently ARE testing and evaluating this particular piece of gear. As far as weight, the suit takes on the burden of its own weight and folds compactly for storage. It doesn't impede normal movement in anyway. Also for all those concerned…the suit still will bear the load once power is cut. I think battery power is up to 72 hours currently.
http://www.lockheedmartin.com/products/hulc/HULCV…
nice