TALOS http://theyshallwalk.org/?p=2227 is what the Pentagon is calling the LIFESUIT they would like to see
that could be a modern day “Iron Man Suit”.
They Shall Walk has been developing technology and engineering mobility to help disabled people walk again. This same technology could be used to help keep our soldiers and police alive during rescue operations and other dangerous missions.
Currently the LIFESUIT is controlled by a PSoC from Cypress Microcontroller http://www.cypress.com/psoc/
TALOS was the automation from mythology that was tossed into the garbage heap from the gods when it was deemed useless.
The soldiers have suggested that this could be a useful tech if it could work. Many experts have said it can not work. This is easy to say when you are not spending time in the lab every week working on exoskeletons for a couple of decades.
Navy Seals, and Army soldiers alike have said they would like to see this tech work. There is a video going around in the
milatary special ops community that shows a soldier walking down an alley with mud walled buildings on either side. He approaches a doorway that has four AK 47’s waiting for him. As every spec ops will tell you, there is no way to know what you will find behind the door the next door. It does not matter if it is door number one, door number two or number three. There is no way to know. You can train and plan for contingency A, B, C… K and then when you get to the destination in a mission the contingency you did not plan for is waiting for you.
Even the most up to date intel can be wrong.
The idea of armor that would allow a soldier to withstand a bullet and shrapnel barrage and allow the soldier to complete the mission is inspiring to the troop who have boots on the ground. The LIFESUIT is designed to allow a paralyzed person with complete life support systems to walk around. The high payload capacity is up to 1400 pounds (fourteen hundred pounds). This allows for respirators, dialysis, IV, EKG, and feeding systems all to be carried. Because of the payload capability it would be very easy to modify the LIFESUIT to carry a large load of armor. Sport models of the LIFESUIT are being developed to help athletes to learn to move like the masters. By recording the movements of a master golfer, boxer or downhill skier they could be used to teach muscle memory to an armature or an up and coming athlete.
These systems could be used to teach new soldiers how to act and react in combat situations. Using a combination of telemetry suits and Microsoft Kinect systems an experience soldier could be observed and recorded. Then the new recruits could be placed into the powered exoskeleton and run through some exercises where the LIFESUIT does the movements. The soldier’s muscles and nervous system would learn the actions of the experience soldier. This could be especially useful in simulators even before the LIFESUIT is ready for the battlefield.
