Christ Centered Gamer

Ever price check a UAV?

$5000 will get you one capable of autonomous or remote surveillance.

For me, it's just a brain fart.

Building a suit of power armor?

Orodrist wrote:Ever price check a UAV?

$5000 will get you one capable of autonomous or remote surveillance.

Huh. I had not. My dad designed a lot of the military's though, so there's that....

Chozon1 wrote:For me, it's just a brain fart.

Building a suit of power armor?

That sounds like an awesome idea. Wanna do it?

Yes actually. Personally I say we ditch a sleek look in favor of bulk and strength. Easier to design too, I think.

Your thoughts?

Sounds like the Mark I Iron Man suit. And like a plan. And I love it when a plan comes together.

It does sound like the Iron Man suit...weird...must've been inspired by that and not even known it. XD

How are we going to work out the power issues? And also, what do you think about layers of carbon fiber, kevlar, and aircraft grade aluminum as the exoskeleton instead of steel?

I say we start with a fuel cell backpack until we can find a lighter power source. And the layering sounds like a good idea, though we might want to look into metals that are more durable than that. Not that it's a bad idea, just that impacts of high velocity will be problematic...

True. I was thinking of light weight, but that's not helpful...Titanium?

Electric motors or some sort of pneumatics?

Titanium works, though it is more expensive. Hopefully we don't plan to mass-produce this thing.

I think motors would be the most cost-effective solution, and they would make the suit less gnarly on the outside.

I think we'll need just like two. Or five. I mean...do you want to share a suit of power armor?

How would the motors work as far as a power usage to strength ratio?

And are we going to make this thing environmentally sealed?

I haven't crunched any numbers, but I suspect that pneumatics would be stronger and require less power, though more dangerous if we were going to be fired upon. I think motors are ideal for the smaller joints, and possible pneumatics for the legs and arms.



As for environmentally sealed, how does this sound?

I was thinking we should make the layer of the suit that the skin comes in contact with a thin, watertight material, but not a thermal layer (I.E. it's not like a blanket, it conducts the temperature surrounding it). This layer will have a thin layer of a liquid substance that will act as temperature control for the body. The liquid will be stored in a holding tank until the wearer closes the suit, at which point the liquid will flood the layer, forming a skin-tight seal with the wearers body. The wearer can adjust the temperature as needed, and this reduces our user overheating problems.

Now, the second part of this layer: There are lots of fiber connections on the outside of the skin layer that connect between the liquid. The outer layer has connections where the fibers will be attached to positional switches. This way, the suit will move with the wearer, and act like a set of regular clothing while the wearer feels none of the weight.

The helmet will have a dual liquid-air system. Depending on whether or not we want the wearer to see things through a lens or a camera, different parts of the helmet will have fan controls which can cool the mouthpeice and whatnot. The helmet will also have the layer system as described above, but I'm thinking we should make a visor or something so the user can look around.

Finally, here's another spark of imagination: What if we sealed the suit magnetically? That way, in the event of a power loss during testing, the user isn't trapped inside the suit while techs take the whole thing apart. Ideally, there would be a way so that in the event of power failure, the wearer simply steps out of the suit. No harm done.

Thoughts?

If we went with pneumatics, mayhaps we could seal pneumatic pistons and hoses and such under a layer of the exoskeleton material, to minimize the risk of them getting shot. At the least, it'd disguise them.

Also, I love your ideas. XD The body suit sounds a bit similar to a modern LCG, so a good bit of the designing and experimentation for that would be easier. At least as far as materials go. Not to mention it sounds a lourd more efficient than trying to heat, cool and seal the entire innards of the machine. Same with the controls of the suit. There's less chance of a motor over-extending and injuring the user.

Maybe we could have both a screen and a lens. That way we could add stuff like infrared and a HUD while still having the ability to see with the unaided eye. I like the idea of a visor. I also remember seeing a wheelchair for paraplegics that was controlled by a remote inside the mouth. What do you think of something like that for the suits inner controls (heating and cooling, or maybe stuff with audio/visual)? Though I'm not sure how sophisticated the tech is. There was also a computer program that would control things using facial expressions and eye movement picked up by camera, but again, I'm not sure if it'd be complex enough. Or easy to mount correctly inside a helmet.

Also:

Deepfreeze32 wrote:Finally, here's another spark of imagination: What if we sealed the suit magnetically? That way, in the event of a power loss during testing, the user isn't trapped inside the suit while techs take the whole thing apart. Ideally, there would be a way so that in the event of power failure, the wearer simply steps out of the suit. No harm done.

That...is genius. O_o That was another thing (aside from motors moving too much and tearing an arm off) that I had considered as a problem, since I read a book once where a dude in a submersible armor suit was essentially blind and lame without power.

Think we could make it able to jump?

I was particularly proud of that one (The magnets), though I feel like they pose a safety hazard for certain environments, which is why I think we should make it for land use only.

In addition, I forgot to detail the rest of my layers theory: Outside of the switch layer (Which I can't tell if you thought that was a good idea or not) is one of those carbon nanotube circuit boards that you see in Popular Science. Except as a whole layer They carry motor control commands, diagnostic sensors, and general power to the suit. That way, we can have the suit run a self-diagnostic on startup and alert the user of any malfunctions. In addition, this allows the user to keep tabs on the integrity of key systems while being alerted is there is damage to the main circuits.

Naturally, we need chips to run this whole party. So I'm thinking triple-secure systems here: One in the chest plate, one in the backpack (Which stores power cells, excesses for the LCG, and a backup control panel), and one in the helmet. Also, I'm thinking a form of trackpad on the right wrist of the armor, able to be shielded by a thin layer of metal. This pad allows the user to manipulate certain elements of the suit not normally accessible from the HUD.

That brings me to my next major concern: The interface. I think for the sake of usability, we should make the HUD as passive as possible. It should have a targeting system, identification software, system status reports, and a GPS display. Any other features should require more effort to reach, like flipping a switch on the helmet/wrist. In addition, if we go with the lens/camera combo, we need a way to switch between them. This, I think, is where a wrist panel would be nice.

Finally, the outer layer should be as you suggested: combination of composites, kevlar, and metal. I think it should also have a series of sensors on it to give the user an indication of the kind of damage they have received.


Now the jumping part. Jumping in and of itself is not hard. Landing properly without toppling over or damaging something is. XD It's definitely doable, but I think our first prototypes should be restricted to the ground. Though I'm not opposed to adding a rocket propulsion system akin to a Space Marine jump pack. Jumping would definitely benefit from pneumatics in the legs, as they could double as power and cushion for the actual jumping.



Any other key systems I need to plan for? (BTW, no offense, but if we go through with this, I think I should handle the physics. Just to be safe. )

I dunno. I think with proper usage of O-rings and seals, we could at least do nonpressurized aqua stuff. Like crossing rivers. Magnets, 'specially if they were strong ones (were you thinking something like rare earth, or electromagnets? I think you're talking electromagnets, so when the suit lost power they'd automatically shut down, but I wanna make sure).

I did think you're layer idea was good. Maybe a bit complex, butt then I may be comprehending it wrong. I certainly have no other ideas (currently) to offer to the contrary either way. Definitely like the nanotube stuff though. Though I don't read popular science (which may be an oxymoron. ) and I'm only weakly familiar with the tech. I do know it's wicked expensive though. I would also wonder about the durability of it. We would definitely need something like it though.

Triple-chip set sounds good, though I would actually place one in the foot or over the rump. Mostly because no one thinks to look there, and if we have to use something heavy to EMP shield (or from other radioactive stuff. I actually think this suit could be used in dangerous areas outside of combat. Radioactive areas, disater stuff. ETC. What do you think? Of that and EMP shielding,) it, it would balance better. I was also wondering about putting the feet on some sort of ball joint, and work a gyro into the suit to aid with balance. Something like what a Segway uses. Speaking of which, how big/tall were you thinking? To an extent, the bigger we make it, the cheaper the tech will be. I was thinking something like 12' to 9', since that'd be impressive and easier to engineer all the jank into. Also bulkier and harder to control, though.

The only problems I see with a wrist panel is that it would be easy to break, and it would perhaps be a weak point in the suits armor. Not a major one though. Unless we made opened up the entire carapace layer to reach the real wrist. There's also the matter of it being difficult to use with the suits gloves or handpieces. Unless we didna armor the hands, it'd think it'd be difficult.

What about going all Power Glove with it? Or make it so that placing your hands in different positions altered the interface modes, ala Metroid Prime.

I totally agree about your HUD ideas. Simpler is better, I think. Same with sensors for external conditions of the suit. Maybe even some to give external environment conditions.

I can see the pneumatics for jumping, but do rockets exist that can are compact and controlled enough for suit mounted applications? We'd basically need a super jetpack. Though...since the legs would be heat shielded to an extent, we'd not face the limitations current jetpacks face.

I can live with you doing the physics. 'Least, until I actually know what I'm doing with them. I'll have to think about key systems, but so far it seems good. Maybe the glove pieces and how the thing seals up. The magnets are win, but would we make the torso as one piece you step into, or make it open backed and hinged?

Yeah, I was thinking electromagnets. They're cheaper than rare-earth. And that sounds feasible, though I wouldn't recommend taking a dive or anything. XD

As I understand, nanotubes are really durable, but as you said, wicked expensive. We could probably use a silica-based substance for electrical conductance though.

My problem with the foot is that there's already of a ton of weight there, so there's a risk of us crushing the backup. XD As for EMP resistance, I'll have to look into that. Radiation resistance means we should add some lead to the layer above the electrical level. That said, I see lots of potential in the hazardous environment market. Imagine if our suit could be used for effecting safe repairs of Chernobyl.

Now about the feet: That's good, but I was assuming that the user's foot would be inside the boot. So there's be no room for a gyro if their ankle is there. XD And size, I had a slightly smaller design in mind. What you want to build sounds like a mecha. XD

Not opposed to either idea, but we should decide on one.

As for wrist panel, it's mostly an idea. If we make the suit big enough, the hands may need to be controlled by joystick or something, which means we could stick interface functions there.

Power glove is cool...but it makes you look janky. XD

Jetpacks, basically what you said. We don't need to worry about burning off the legs of the wearer. XD

I think the torso should open at the back and allow the user to climb out of the legs and out of the suit like that. make sense?