A New, Robotic Suit Designed By Raytheon

At the Raytheon Company's research facility in Salt Lake City, Utah, development of a robotic suit designed to be the soldier of the future. The seven year $75-million project is called Exoskeletons for Human Performance Augmentation. DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) contracted Raytheon Company in 2000 to build the suit.

The suit weighs in at about 200 pounds and has already started to go through some test trials. Basically, a person is fitted into the suit and then the movements made by the operator are mimicked by the suit through a series of sensors, controllers and cylinder actuators. However, much force is exerted by the operator the suit complies to command with a noticeable stronger reaction.

The suit is basically designed to relieve the strain and exertion of a battlefield environment. DARPA recruited Raytheon with some goals in mind. Goals included enabling the operator to: Carry two hundred pounds and hike for hours with little or no effort, use weapons that would ordinarily require at least two or more people, remove injured soldiers from the battlefield without help.

So far test trials have not included any battlefield or long distance hiking. For the moment, Raytheon is happy to settle the ability to allow the operator to lift 200 pounds with little to no effort. They are also concentrating on dexterity and reaction times. The operator right now has the ability to kick around a soccer ball and use a speed bag, climb stairs and ramps with ease for its dexterity and reaction exercises.

Raytheon has gotten an unexpected press turnout due to the release of 'Iron Man' the movie. In the movie the character Tony Stark, Played by Robert Downy Jr., is a weapons designer who, after while being held captive in the Middle East, designs the "Iron Man" suit to aid in the escape from his captors. Once he returns to the U.S., he sets out on designing a more advanced exoskeletal suit that amplifies his strength and durability. The suit also has all kinds of gadgets, like onboard weapons, avionics, and flight capability.

Despite all of the impressive abilities that Raytheon has already built into the suit, the one hindering factor is the power supply. Currently the suit can only be operated with an external power-pack that last about forty minutes. Other than that, the suit relies on external power source. DARPA's goal is to have the suit operating from a lightweight power supply that will allow the suit to work continuously for twenty four hours or longer.

Every day it seems that science fiction is gradually becoming science fact.