A new exoskeleton, coined by some as a real-life “Iron Man,” was unveiled at U. Utah last week.
The exoskeleton is the latest robotic development that started at the school under Stephen Jacobsen, a professor in mechanical engineering, who started Sarcos in the early 1980s, said Fraser Smith, vice president of operations for Raytheon Sarcos.
The robot, known as XOS 2, is able to lift and carry more weight and uses 50 percent less energy than its predecessor. Researchers aimed to reduce the amount of power consumed with the new generation robot.
“XOS 1 was a proof of concept,” Smith said, stating that the goal was to determine the capabilities of making an exoskeleton like this.
Paramount Home Entertainment and Raytheon Sarcos began making plans about a month ago to collaborate, in hopes of promoting XOS 2 and the DVD and Blu-ray release of “Iron Man 2,” which was released Sept. 28 said Guy Shields, a spokesperson for Raytheon.
Through this collaboration, Clark Gregg, who plays Agent Phil Coulson in the films, was able to test out XOS 2 during the unveiling of the suit Sept. 23, Shields said.
Iron Man’s suit was intended to help a few people accomplish superhuman feats, the XOS 2 was designed to make a lot of people do many extraordinary things, Smith said.
The exoskeleton enhances a person’s natural ability. Researchers can control the amount of force applied by the user. For every one pound of force XOS 2 exerts 17 pounds, making lifting a 50-pound weight feel like three pounds, Smith said.
XOS 2 is capable of lifting 50 pounds, 15 pounds more than XOS 1, and holds the weight with the arms outstretched, which is the hardest position to do, Smith said. It can also bench-press about 200 pounds and carry a 200-pound backpack, he said.
There are two versions of the exoskeleton-logistics and military. The military version only has legs and was designed to help soldiers carry heavy packs. With XOS 2, soldiers would be able to carry the packs longer and have a decreased risk of orthopedic injuries associated with carrying heavy loads, Smith said.
The logistics version of XOS 2 has both arms and legs. The goal with this version was to design an exoskeleton that could help people unload objects off of trucks. Additionally, researchers wanted to reduce the risk of injuries, with the logistic version, they are also looking to decrease the amount of people it takes to complete these tasks by a third.
Smith welcomes the comparison between the Iron Man suit and XOS 2, adding that the exoskeleton is real and the suit pure fantasy.
“From our perspective, we were happy to have publicity associated with the release of Iron Man 2, as it makes kids more enthusiastic about going into the engineering field,” Smith said.