"The researchers foresee their exosuits helping soldiers carry heavy loads"
Better be very sure the suits aren't hackable!
Exosuits have featured prominently in comic books and films for decades, but as they move from research labs to the work environment, they're looking more like couture from Robin Hood: Men in Tights than artifacts from Iron Man. Exosuits, or exoskeletons, that assist human activity date back to the late 19th century, but weren …
Electroactive polymers sound like an interesting avenue of research for a spandex exosuit.
They are piezoelectric polymers so they expand with an applied current and contract back to rest when it is off, I am not sure of the efficiency at the moment but it is somethong that could be incorporated into a spandex suit to gain some kind of augmentation.
Why bother? Walking etc. with two counter-balancing legs of similar dimensions, one left, one right, with alternating separation from Planet Earth works great for us 'cos that is how we are built*. It is not the optimum method for locomotion generally. Nor is it efficient, when one leg has to be strong enough to bear the entire load while the other is in mid-air. It has proven to be an immense challenge to replicate industrially. Wheels (1, 2, 4 or more) are a better option in many scenarios. The exception is where the mountain goat comes into his own. Or the tank track.
* and don't get me started on having 5 toes at the end of each leg - whose brilliant idea was that?? If it was to help us count to 20 it failed - and a foot of a couple dozen bones more advanced (and effective) than anything Mr. Adidas has yet invented.
The MIT team are testing one on the ISS now to try to counter the growth of the human spine by up to an inch.
With electroactive polymer threads they can put the put under roughly 1/3 Atm compression, equal to the pressure inside a normal space suit, which is their long term goal.
I'll note its the EA polymers that provide the last 0.05atm strength. The other 0.25 is by a carefully laid pattern of elastic threads (working out where to put these in the 1960's was the key breakthrough of the time).
These might have their uses in light-assist / medical or even military endurance enhancement applications but I just don't see them happening in heavy military / industrial settings where the goal would be to notably increase load carrying / lifting capacity - you simply need the rigid frame to take the load off the person wearing it, pushing and pulling here and there on a body-suit won't do squat there.
The issue is actually attachment.
You can easily provide assist to the foot as you have a natural attachment point in the form of a boot.
Now try to provide assist to the upper portion of the leg. Hard exosuit does not have issues here as it applies the assist to the shell. In a soft one you will need to drill the bone somewhere near the knee to fix attachment points to it.
In no relation to the subject line... I fail to see how the comparison to Google-Eyed Glass is relevant. Gl-ass was known to be always watching, and that's creepy as hell. People did not like the idea of being watched, recorded and "shared" by random fanbois.
People wearing an exo-suit are more likely to get interested and admiring looks, with not a few friendly questions. Some folks will be weirded out, but most will be curious or not care. However, if you wanted to destroy your public good will, simply bolt on an obvious camera.
Worlds apart...