Man in suit

Iron Man’s armor is not far off. This article in CNN describes a robotic exoskeleton that heightens the user’s physical strength twenty-fold.

But he said Sarcos appears to have overcome the key challenge of pairing super-fast microprocessors with sensors that detect movements by the body’s joints and transmit data about them to the suit’s internal computer.

Much as the brain sends signals to tendons to get muscles to move, the computer sends instructions to hydraulic valves. The valves mimic tendons by driving the suit’s mechanical limbs, replicating and amplifying the wearer’s movements almost instantly.

“With all the previous attempts at this technology, there has been a slight lag time between the intent of the human, and the actual movement of the machine,” Obusek said.

In the demonstration, the bulky suit slowed Jameson a bit, but he could move almost normally.

I particularly like the fact that the depicted tester is tall and lanky. Skinny boys, unite! Our robo-suits make us the big men on campus.