Thursday, May 17, 2007

Fascinating Invention No.12 - The Super-powered exo-skeleton


If you cannot get hold of a jet pack, then get an exoskeleton because they are pretty good as well. Let me explain. If you take a close squint at the picture of the forklift-truck/fire-extinguisher outfit, you will realise that this is not an actual robot but a person with machinery attached to him or in this case a her because this is a picture of Sigourney Weaver from the film 'Aliens', when Dad says she is, 'not looking her best'. OBVIOUSLY I have not seen this fantastic looking film and have stored it up as one of the forbidden films to be watched round Dexter's house; but I can only think that if I was a girl (shudder) and I was fighting an alien monster (cool) I would not be very worried about if I had the right lipstick on. The point is that the exoskeleton she is wearing means she is able to lift a small car like a bag of sugar and that must be quite handy when it comes to destroying something bigger than you.

The Americans have been working on real exoskeletons (ES). They also want to use them to destroy things, probably aliens if they can find them. The first proper one was developed in 1965 by General Electric and was called 'Goliath'. This one was not very good because they could only get one arm to move at all. So if you wanted to be able to wave, for example a flag, for days on end, then Goliath would have been up for it. If both legs started moving at once, though it lead to "violent and uncontrollable motion" - bit like Dad when he is trying to dance (shudder). They also made the 'Millenium Jet' which is like a one person air-car and you can wear jeans to have a go in this.

Good things about ES: Enough power to lift a small elephant.
Can run as fast as a cheetah on an off day.
Bad things about ES: Enough power to squish the person strapped inside the ES
Not enough power to go for longer than one minute in the air-car. This means NO trips to Tesco and definitely NO room for shopping bags anyway.

Looks cool though.

8 comments:

Suzan Abrams, email: suzanabrams@live.co.uk said...

Wow Wilf, what a fantastic piece of genius. Which makes me wonder what you're up to in your cute little mind.

Anonymous said...

I'm sure that, given time, they'll be able to develop the technology to make it feasible to take trips to Tesco's via exo-skeleton. It's only a matter of time.

And I'm resisting making any filthy jokes about the one-arm Goliath thing.

I kind of fancy owning an air car, though.

Wilf said...

Sometimes I wonder what my mind is up to too, Suzan.

Wilf said...

I am not quite sure what filthy jokes you mean but Dad says I will find out at some point - blimey, there's a lot to find out about, he might as well just tell me now. I will ask Dexter.

Anonymous said...

Talk about big boys toys. Wilf, now your entering a whole new terrain of inventions.

Wilf said...

You are right, Khylan. I blame this on the Science Museum.

Unknown said...

I suppose this means if the Americans get their exoskeleton thingies right then they'll be hunting me down with a view to squishing me into a chickenburger! Good thing I've left the planet!

Wilf said...

Yes, Atyllah, I think you were right to leave when you did!