Terminator meets modern soldiers

The photo in the Berkeley press release made me think of the Terminator. But this photo of a man with legs encased in a metal frame actually accompanied an article about a new robotics project designed to help a soldier carry a much heavier load than normal. While the hardware and hydraulics might look like part of Arnold Schwarzenegger's costume, the Berkeley Lower Extremity Exoskeleton (BLEEX), funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), is being touted as a tool to allow soldiers to walk farther carrying heavier loads, to help medics carry the wounded off battlefields, to help firefighters carry heavy equipment up stairs, or even to help those with weakened muscles to walk. The whole contraption is attached to an army boot, the person's body and a vest-and-backpack type assembly. It allows the wearer to walk around carrying heavy loads with the same effort as carrying a five-pound pack. The device just moves with the wearer and requires no special training to operate. The BLEEX project offers a tantalizing solution to situations in which heavy equipment is needed but vehicles cannot travel. Man has traditionally solved this problem by putting pack animals to work to haul things or inventing maneuverable tools like the wheelbarrow. With this invention, the person becomes his or her own wheelbarrow. The exoskeleton is a project of the University of California at Berkeley's Robotics and Human Engineering Laboratory program and DARPA is the military's research and experimentation wing. DARPA is the organization that really invented the Internet, although it was university academics who brought it to a useful state, but DARPA is also the organization that brought us Carnivore and the Total Information Awareness project. DARPA's role is to fund research in the unusual. This project has been running since 2000 and has now reached the point at which a person, which the project calls a pilot, can carry a 70-pound load with great maneuverability. "We've designed this system to be ergonomic, highly maneuverable and technically robust so the wearer can walk, squat, bend and swing from side to side without noticeable reductions in agility. The human pilot can also step over and under obstructions while carrying equipment and supplies," said Homayoon Kazerooni, professor of mechanical engineering and director of UC-Berkeley's Robotics and Human Engineering Laboratory. The project's scientists plan to work on adapting the system so the wearer can also run and jump while using the system. The device is connected to specialized army boots to which the leg braces are firmly and rigidly attached. The mechanical metal leg braces are connected in a more fluid manner to the rest of the legs, to prevent abrasion. The whole assembly has its own power source - the first prototypes used chainsaw engines - in a vest-and- backpack assembly, which also carries the braces when not in use, or can be used to carry a heavy load. According to the developers, wearing the 100-pound device and carrying a 70-pound pack feels like carrying five pounds. The military is also working on developing a sophisticated high-tech telecom and weapons control system for use by footsoldiers, as part of its Future Combat Systems program. This system will make it much more feasible for soldiers to carry those heavier packs of equipment over longer distances. This system will also be useful for non-military applications, such as emergency rescue personnel and firefighters, allowing them to also haul heavy equipment into inaccessible areas. Other applications may be to aid those with health-related mobility problems. "The fundamental technology developed here can also be developed to help people with limited muscle ability to walk optimally," said Kazerooni. The fact that the device just moves with the wearer and does not require training to operate makes it something that could get wide use by rescue teams or be issued to all soldiers, once the product is through development. The UC-Berkeley team is not the only group working on such a device but they are the furthest along in the process. "We are taking great pains to make this as practical and robust as possible for the wearer," said Kazerooni. "Several engineers around the world are working on motorized exoskeletons that can enhance human strength, but we've advanced our design to the point where a 'pilot' could strap on the external metal frame and walk in figure eights around a room. No one else has done that." How does this system work? The device works by shifting the weight load of the wearer using more than 40 sensors and hydraulic actuators. The system forms a network that acts as a kind of nervous system for the device, with sensors in the soles of the boots providing information to its computer to direct it on how to adjust the load. The system uses hydraulic power for locomotion and electrical power for the computer. While they will not be cyborgs, soldiers of the future might look more like the Terminator than G.I. Joe as they stride across a battlefield, thanks to robotics researchers in California.