The Goth Club

Construction suits of the future

We’ve already covered cyborgs and robots in our previous discussions, but it seems a lot of people simply aren’t comfortable with the idea of replacing parts of themselves, or entire humans, in order to get laborious jobs done. Frankly, I think you’re screaming wussies, but that could just be me.

So if you’re not prepared to be replaced by robotic labour, and you’re not content with hacking off one of your own arms to get a cybernetic upgrade, what are you going to do?

The answer lies in augmented exo-suits.

200 years in the 80s future, and this was the best they could do? I suppose it'd be cheap to make

The suit most people are probably familiar with is the classic heavy load power lifter that Ripley hops into in Aliens. Cyberpunk fiction, and robot filled anime in particular, is choc full of them. Works of Masamune Shirow, such as Appleseed, come to mind.

These sorts of heavy labour and, dare I say it, combat suits are actually not very far from becoming a very practical reality.

There are two major firms involved in this race:

Doesn't look very bullet proof

1) The American based Sarcos, manufacturers of the XOS (pronounced “Eck-soss” as in Exoskeleton) suit, which is being billed as the real life Iron Man. Together with a nice fat grant from DARPA, this is assuredly going to end up being for military applications after they’ve made it larger, more armoured, and with tactical mount points… oh yeah, and figured out a way to give it more than 30 minutes of operational effectiveness if the battery isn’t breached.

iMecha, clearly designed by Apple!

2)  The Japanese based (I shit you not) Cyberdine Corporation. No, they really did give themselves the same name as the company that brought about Skynet in the Terminator series. To make matters worse, their suit is called HAL 5. Add some AI into it, and we’re amazingly fucked.

Interestingly enough, the HAL suit has been in development for less time, has been designed for more medical and restorative means than the XOS, but is ready to go into commercial production next year. Perhaps more interestingly is that it looks better and currently provides better armour and battery life than the American product, which could probably use a bullet proof corset underneath it. Whether this has something to do with the Japanese insistence that form be a part of function, or they’re just trying to make sure that it looks like a friendly piece of techno-oriented fashion, as opposed to some sociopathic death bot, who knows.

Fact of the matter is that both of these are going to revolutionise the building industry. No longer will fat, lazy brickies be able to say that they can’t possibly lift those four bricks. No longer will carpenters claim that they haev bad knees or backs and can’t kneel down to fire off nail guns into the boards. Strain injuries will be a thing of the past.

Instead, the new claims will be getting too much tomato sauce into the joints, and that the missus forgot to plug the suit in overnight.

So, let’s get on to the questions that no one else is asking:

1. Will young punks figure out a way to make this a cool form of transportation that senior citizens demand be removed from their lawn?
2. Will people start playing sports in these? And if so, how far away will a 3 point shot have to be when there’s an ability to lift and shift 400kg?
3. How are hoons going to start hot rodding their exo suits?
4. 

   Couldn't resist

   What kind of response can we expect from law enforcement agencies when these start getting used in crimes? Is it ok to assume that these are deadly weapons, like steel capped boots, and therefore shoot someone in the face? And can you use explosive ordinance if their exosuit has a faceplate?

5. Will they bother making models aimed specifically at women, like the Holden Barina? If so, will they have breasts on the chest plates, or armour pleated plated skirts?

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