thedrifter
03-19-04, 05:17 PM
Issue Date: March 22, 2004
Legging it
Experimental exoskeleton could ease troops’ load
Grunts feeling overburdened by increasingly heavier combat loads might like the latest in legwear coming from Berkeley, Calif.
Berkeley is often synonymous with the offbeat, strange and anti-establishment (deservedly or not) but, in this case, the fashion is steely, strong and designed for the warrior who not only has everything — but has to carry it, as well.
It’s an exoskeleton — think of mechanized leggings — that will enable fighters to carry heavy loads over long distances.
The project is called the Berkeley Lower Extremities Exoskeleton, and it’s funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Pentagon’s research-and-development arm. It was among the projects being showcased at a DARPA tech symposium recently in Anaheim, Calif.
In lab experiments, says Homayoon Kazerooni, who directs the Robotics and Human Engineering Laboratory at the University of California-Berkeley, testers have walked around in the 100-pound exoskeleton plus a 70-pound backpack and felt as if they were carrying just 5 pounds — total.
Notwithstanding DARPA’s role in developing the system, Kazerooni insists these 21st-century seven-league boots are not intended to turn people into Terminators.
“The exoskeleton is not going to magically transform people into killing machines,” he said. “They’re really good, it turns out, at enabling firefighters, soldiers, post-disaster rescue crews to carry heavy loads over great distances for hours.”
http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/story.php?f=0-MARINEPAPER-2724450.php
Ellie
Legging it
Experimental exoskeleton could ease troops’ load
Grunts feeling overburdened by increasingly heavier combat loads might like the latest in legwear coming from Berkeley, Calif.
Berkeley is often synonymous with the offbeat, strange and anti-establishment (deservedly or not) but, in this case, the fashion is steely, strong and designed for the warrior who not only has everything — but has to carry it, as well.
It’s an exoskeleton — think of mechanized leggings — that will enable fighters to carry heavy loads over long distances.
The project is called the Berkeley Lower Extremities Exoskeleton, and it’s funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Pentagon’s research-and-development arm. It was among the projects being showcased at a DARPA tech symposium recently in Anaheim, Calif.
In lab experiments, says Homayoon Kazerooni, who directs the Robotics and Human Engineering Laboratory at the University of California-Berkeley, testers have walked around in the 100-pound exoskeleton plus a 70-pound backpack and felt as if they were carrying just 5 pounds — total.
Notwithstanding DARPA’s role in developing the system, Kazerooni insists these 21st-century seven-league boots are not intended to turn people into Terminators.
“The exoskeleton is not going to magically transform people into killing machines,” he said. “They’re really good, it turns out, at enabling firefighters, soldiers, post-disaster rescue crews to carry heavy loads over great distances for hours.”
http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/story.php?f=0-MARINEPAPER-2724450.php
Ellie