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Sci-Fact: Exo-Skeletons

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Sci-Fact: Exo-Skeletons Imagine a world with no physical human limits. A world where you can run for miles, or pick up two hundred pounds without a blink of an eye. Before the invention of exoskeletons, Robert Heinlein wrote about fighting suits (exoskeletons) in the novel Starship Troopers (Technovelgy.com). Exoskeletons can make everyone's life easier, whether in school or at work. Exoskeletons can even help in war by increasing our soldier's stamina. These devices will definitely make America a stronger country. Exoskeletons are a marvelous concept, but who had the initial idea? That man's name was Robert Heinlein. Robert Heinlein was born in 1907 and died in 1988 (heinleinsociety.org). He first published his book Starship Troopers in 1959. Around this time, there was little innovation, so he felt the need to bring some new ideas into the mix. A couple years after his book hit the market, the first exoskeleton was designed. He just wanted something that could change the world. …show more content…

The first one ever invented was a large, clunky machine named Hardmoch 1. This suit was made by a man named Ralph Mosher (cyberneticzoo.com). The Hardmoch 1 weighed 700 pounds, and could lift 1500 pounds with ease. Although there was a problem. It had trouble responding to human movements. After a while, a worker sustained an injury due to the poor design of the interior. So it was then scrapped until many years later. Now, companies like DARPA are revamping this concept and making it viable (darpa.mil). The current model from this company weighs much less than the original and you can move around in it freely. In the future, companies plan to have exoskeletons that can be put into combat and that can also be worn discretely. This shows that the technology used in robotic suits has really made some large jumps in its development. We definitely have not seen the end of

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