One of the hottest new movies is expected to be Iron Man. In case you are the one person on the planet who doesn't know who that is, I will give a very quick and short synopsis. Before I start, I have to tell you that I am not as familiar as most with the comic, but I will do the best I can. Tony Stark is a middle aged wreck of a man. While this guy is a wreck and a womanizer, he is also a genius, who has been based on Howard Hughes. Stark is a weapons manufacturer and playboy. The character of Iron Man was created by that great comic book genius, Stan Lee and first appeared in 1963. Rights are owned by Marvel Comics. In the beginning, Iron Man was an anti-communist hero defending agents in Vietnam. Stark was an alcoholic and battled it constantly. Stark was supposedly born on Long Island, in New York. His father was a wealthy industrialist and head of Stark Industries. Stark was observing his experimental technologies during the war and is injured by a booby trap. He is then captured by the enemy, who demands that he build weapons for them. Instead of building weapons for the enemy, Stark who is injured very badly, builds the iron suit that he uses to break out of prison, with the help of his cell mate. Stark uses the suit to destroy his kidnappers and heads off. Later Stark finds out that the shrapnel from the booby trap can not be removed, it is too near his heart and it would kill him. He now has to wear a metal plate over his chest to regulate the shrapnel and prevent it from moving. This condition is later remedied with an artificial heart. As time goes by the suit has an effect on Stark, ravaging his nervous system. He has to go into suspended animation to recover. The suit is constantly being improved. The suit is always being updated and at one point becomes aware. The suit that Iron Man wears gives him superhuman strength. It can fly faster than a jet and has an array of powerful weapons. There are even ray firing devices in the gloves. He carries a kinetic energy weapon and has an electromagnetic pulse generator. Stark has more than one suit and different ones have different capabilities, such as the ability to dive under water, or to fly into space. The suit also gives Stark superhuman sensory perception.

We see by the above, that Stark is more human than most superheros and has many problems, both socially and physically. In other words he is an ordinary guy wearing a powerful suit that increases many of his abilities. This is a very important point. It is important because the U.S. military is developing powerful suits for ordinary soldiers. They have been working on these systems for years and are almost ready to release their first models. For those of you that read the magazine "Popular Science", there is a very good article in the May, 2008 issue, about these new devices. They don't look like a suit in the sense of the word, as a matter of fact they are called exoskeletons. The idea is for a soldier to step into this device. His body is inside a sort of steel framework, that is open. . Pneumatic cylinders increase his strength so that an ordinary guy can become a super strong guy. The device is not capable of flying, yet. In demonstrations, soldiers have lifted 200 pounds over five hundred times and are not the least bit tired when finished. One of the things that the army wanted the device to be capable of, was to be able to pick up two wounded soldiers and rush them off of the battlefield. The idea for this device was said to have come from the comic Iron Man. I think that is really great. It shows that there are still some people with an open mind.

When this device was being developed, there were many obstacles to be overcome. One of the main things was that there couldn't be any lag time. That meant that when a movement was made, it had to happen instantly with the suit. Just a tiny lag could cause all sorts of problems. It was claimed that if there was a lag, it would make the wearer of the machine feel that he was trying to walk through water. The whole idea was to make everything effortless. Stamina was another factor. Whatever the wearer did was not to tire him out. In other words, his actions were to take little or no effort. It looks like the manufacturers succeeded in this. What happens is that when a project is started, sometimes no one can figure out a way to do something with the current technology. Then the next wave of technology hits and maybe even several other waves after that and things become much easier to do, thanks to faster processors and such. This is what happened to the exoskeleton project. The emergence of new electronic parts increased the capabilities of the device, until it reached a state, where it had almost instant reaction time. Right now the device weighs about one hundred and fifty pounds, but when you observe someone operating it, it gives the appearance of being very light.

The firm that has been selected to build the exoskeleton is named Sarcos. It is located in Salt Lake City, Utah. One of the major differences with their device is that it uses only one engine, while most, if not all of the other candidates used many different engines. The purpose of the engine, which has not been selected yet, will force hydraulic fluid through tubes at high pressure. The high pressure fluid will be directed to a servo valve on each joint. This will amplify the force, when the user goes to move a limb. This system is much simpler than that which was proposed by any of the other companies. It is sort of like the system that is used to power the brakes on your car. When you step on the brake pedal, high pressure hydraulic fluid is sent to the valve on each wheel and this in turn applies the calipers or brake shoes, depending on what is on your car. Supposedly this device will carry enough fuel to go all day. What the device really is, is a vehicle.

When a soldier is inside the device, he or she can run up stairs, dance and even do tasks on fragile items, without breaking them. Future plans call for suits to be put over the exoskeleton and there will be different suits for different tasks. Armor can be applied for the protection of individual soldiers. Different levels of protection will be available, depending on the mission the soldier has to perform. The wearer will be able to just pull his hands out and use them instead, if he desires and while this is happening the arms on the suit will float and be ready for the hands to be reinserted. Here is the coolest part that is being planned. If the wearer decides to step out of the suit, the manufacturer wants the suit to become a robot that is capable of performing tasks on it's own. Can you imagine that? Talk about science fiction coming to life. It just might turn out that the operator of this suit will also become best friends with it. If the operator steps out, the suit will become a second soldier and it will be able to take risks that an ordinary soldier couldn't take.

The company that is building the exoskeleton suit has many years experience in building humanoid robots, so they know exactly how things like joints should move and balance points and such. I don't know how many of you remember the movie Aliens? In it, the main character uses a device called a loader, to work cargo, It is truly reminiscent of this suit and I have to wonder if any part of the idea might have come from that? The suit itself will have many other uses besides military ones. Can you imagine farmers, lumberjacks and even construction workers using these suits to become more efficient at their tasks. Construction workers would gain the ability to lift much heavier pieces into place. Even the police might be able to use these suits. One of those full armored jobs might be just the ticket for SWAT. They could break down doors with it and actually run into a home or apartment without the fear of being wounded by a bullet. These things might even replace the front end loader. The problem with the military using them, is that every military will soon have them after that, so what is really gained? As I am fond of saying, military advantage is a fleeting thing. By the way, Sarcos is now owned by Raytheon.