Nano-suit military technology - Awesome.

Greetings guys, long time browser, first time poster.

I was watching television last night and the History Channel's From Tactical to Practical had a segment on bulletproof vests. The segment included what amounted to the hands-down coolest thing I've ever seen, which was, the Nano Suit.

Nano suit technology is an ongoing development that has seen rapid advancement in recent years and appears to probably be closer to realization than the public knows, in my opinion.

Anywho, I was excitedly researching the technology online after watching the program and I came across

This site, from the Christian Science Monitor of all places.

The site mentions MIT as a primary contributor to the project, but the television mainly spoke about a certain contractor whose name escapes me.

From last year:


The suit's nanomachines will control the temperature of the soldier, which tops the list of its enhancements for underwater usage. The suit will be bulletproof, of course. It will be able to expand and contract to basically emulate everything from a sweater to a t-shirt.

Here's some sweet reading about the future of the technology:
sfgate.com.../c/a/2003/04/07/BU305865.DTL

Without a doubt, the spiderman strength thing is the coolest. The suit will detect muscle usage and expand, contract, harden, and soften to give the soldier additional strength.

When I was learning about these suits, the Spidersilk Goat came to mind strongly.

Anyway, I'd like to know more about this type of thing - what do you guys know about it?

- Zip

I think Carbon nano tubes will make up the armour for these new suits.There has been alot of talk about using exoskeletons for enhanced even super human strength. Some people think it will come with more of a robotic structure worn over the body.

I think it will use a synthetic muscle not a bulky robotic suit like seen in something like the Movie Aliens with the cargo loader. I think it will be a from fitting suit that is modeled after our own muscles. There is already work that is being done to take the electrical signal from the human muscles to be used to control this type of system.

So when you move your leg one way the suit will move in the exact same way. Nano-muscles might be a great way to do this I have seen some materials that contract like a human muscle when a current of electricity is applied to them before. But I dont think they made any use of nano technology and they were not very strong.

Here's a neat site on neurally controlled mechanics:

www.popsci.com...

The same technology that is in development for artificial limbs would be used for a spiderman strength nano suit arrangement.

I am picturing them not as exoskeletal, but rather more like wetsuits. Nano robots have so much potential... We're living in some wild times.

Its interesting that you mention Spider-man

''Wish you could stick to walls and ceilings like Spider-Man? scientists may have discovered a way to take the fiction out of his sci-fi sticking power.''

The hairs on geckos’ feet stick to most all surfaces because of what are called "van der Waals forces"—attractive forces between the molecules in gecko feet and the molecules of the surface they are sticking to

Ron Fearing, professor of engineering at University of California Berkeley, proved just that with the tiny synthetic gecko hairs he molded with an atomic force microscope. Two types of hairs he created—one from silicone rubber and one from polyester—stick to surfaces as well as gecko hairs do.

Synthetic gecko adhesives would be unique for several reasons. They stick very strongly yet detach easily.

All I need is this stuff, that suit and some type of web shooters and I can be swinging around NYC spider-man style Maybe super heros will be real some day not through any radioactive accident but through science. Indeed intersting times we are living in.

www.sciencentral.com...

i saw something like this in the histry channel. i think it can make you blend perfectly with your enviorment, thus make you invisible like pradaetor

Yup the movie the Predator inspired the new form of optical camo that would be used on these future soldiers.

Life imitating art I guess.

Heres a thread about a Japanese man that created a jacket that works on the same basic principle of the US military version.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

The japanese version is quite impressive if not pratical it still proves the concept. The US has of yet not released any footage of this stealth suit in action yet so no one really knows how good their version works.

my guess is that the technology (stealth, not nano) will be refined in about 10 years, with deployment coming another 5-10 years after that

MIT's been making a ton of robot suits that humans can fit into that increase strength, walking speed, and so forth. These suits are not limited to military personnel only.

[edit on 8-9-2004 by Blackout]

well government hope u read this, i got a gem of an idea. make a suit capable of repeling infared, i mean it seems as though one of our great advantages of the Iraq war is our abilitie to see in the dead of night. obviously their are other countrys capable of this so would that leave our troops vunerable as well in the dead of night?

i love nano tech the coolest technology out there

There already working on Thermal Signature Reduction for the Individual Combatant in future military suits.

''By the end of FY97, demonstrate textile materials that reduce the contrast between the soldier’s thermal signature and the background by 30 percent, without significant degradation of the current level of visible or near-infrared camouflage protection. By the end of FY99, demonstrate combat uniform systems that reduce the soldier’s thermal signature by 50 percent from background levels, providing multispectral camouflage protection to the Dismounted Land Warrior. The technical challenge entails integrating signature reducing materials/ technologies into a textile substrate while maintaining basic fabric characteristics (durability, flexibility, breathability, etc.) and other soldier’s operational capabilities''

50 percent reduction is pretty impressive. Im sure they could make a suit with 100 reduction but you would probably overheat and die in it. It would be a fine line between IR reduction and breathablitiy,unless you make it with its own climate control.

www.fas.org...

could you imagine the nano suit, equipped with super human strength, bullet proof skin, wall crawling capabilities, and invisibility to infrared rays getting out in the general public? Talk about the ultimate cat burglar. You could do virtually anything you wanted to.

Would you know about it or would the thieves be really smart and let no one know of thier gear. ?

Throw in Predator style optical camo and that would be pretty much a unstoppable crook. I remember the cat burglar they called "Spider-Man" in Flordia he stole millions and he was just a really good climber. I cant imagine if he had this type of tech on his side.

One thing that will stop people from getting their hands on this stuff is the cost. This tech will require a huge invesment Someone onces called these future soldiers "F-16s on legs" and thats pretty close to the cost I would think But these future soldiers will be the most deadly the world has ever seen and worth the cost IMO.

I saw a special on this suit or a similar suit and was absolutely amazed at the technology. It's both scary and intriguing.

Optical Camo and a Performance enhancing skeleton, plus nanomachines. The world of Metal Gear Solid is becoming a reality! I would envisage the Exoskeleton being more like something the Ninja Gray Fox wears in the Game, but without such extreme abilities.

I'd really like to see a live demo of this tech.

reply to post by Zipdot

---

also what their going to do is their going to send nanos with a kind of drug that will actually keep you calm, which is most likely to be used for a military suit, also since the nanos can create anything out of pretty much nothing, so later on if they can speed up the speed of the actually making of the object they can literally make a weapon on you in the middle of a firefight(missile/bullets ect.) but dont try to make a .50 cal barret M1 because that would take a lot longer than just a bullet ect. also the boot in the suit will use molecules to send a force of up to 2000 pound onto the ground, result? a jump over 10 feet. also becoming camouflaged wont be the hard part of the building, all you do is change the color of the nanos to create a back ground of up to 15 feet, so if you stand in front of a wall you will be completely invisible.

Didnt anyone here play "crisis".... what do you think their training children to do.

The capabilitys of a soilder will only be limited by their imagination. All of the previous requirments for battlefield superiority are out. The soilder needs nothing but to be able to flawlessly communicate with his tools through his mind. No need for physical anything! Its gonna be crazy..... Like unreal tournment mostly...... or halo is a great example of future combat.

Sounds crazy... but its true.