[concept] Powered Armor

[rhoenix]

After looking into some literature, game universi (Eclipse Phase, Mass Effect, Halo, Metroid), and reading science magazines, I figured I'd post my thoughts on the subject here in the hopes of discussion on the subject.

The concept covers many capabilities, which I will subdivide into three basic categories:

- HUD (heads-up display shown overlaying normal vision on the inside of the helmet)
- Resistance (environmental/space sealing, self-contained air/food/water supply, hardening against various in-universe attacks)
- Enhancement (almost an optional category - covers enhancing normal human physical capabilities in various ways)

1. HUD
Due to the nature of this armor being self-contained (therefore with a closed helmet), seeing through a visor and/or with various cameras and sensors on the helmet is a necessity. Coupling this with various translucent informational overlays can keep a soldier aware of various circumstances related to battle readiness (weapon targeting displays, the wearer's personal health, a map of the area, motion sensors with IFF tagging, etc.), and a soldier can communicate and have easy access to communication and information with teammates and superiors, which can easily tip the edge in a fight.

Natural extensions of this idea are creating a "team network" for shared live-updating map data, so anything seen by any teammate is seen by all. The HUD can also be programmed to show information overlays on buildings, vehicles, or people, showing known status/information/name as well, though this additional information overlay would likely be disabled during combat.

Using this same "team network" idea can basically share the tagging and processing duties among the entire team, so a team's fire can be directed easily - moreover, given clean line of sight, this allows a sniper or heavy weapons specialist to use a teammate's vision to supplement their own, allowing for long-distance shots with precision, given targeting assistance from the HUD.

This same HUD can therefore easily replace any need for scopes beyond basic iron sights on a weapon, since the targeting information would be compiled and updated within the soldier's HUD at all times based on sensor data from the suit, and information from the gun's cameras. This change alone would lead to weapons that don't have sights (beyond iron sights for when things truly go bad), but instead have contact plates on the grip of the weapon to update the armor's HUD with the weapon's status (and camera view) at all times.

2. Resistance
The most basic of this provided is that of being fully environmentally sealed, allowing the wearer to survive in hostile environments (such as space) with no ill effect, while the armor's supplies of air, food, and water last, and protect the wearer from hard radiation in low amounts.

I consider it unlikely for a combat hardsuit armor to have facilities for food or water, let alone breathable air, beyond a day's supply. Simply given the dimensions of the area involved, unless the armor is going to progress from a hardsuit design into something resembling true Hulk-sized powered armor, it would be impractical to do so without facilities to simply manufacture more within the suit, however efficient reclaimation systems within the suit might be.

In terms of protection though, it would be a relatively simple matter to have the suit resist much higher pressures and temperature extremes (such as found on Venus, or Titan) with adjustments. It would be likely that there would be a specialized version of the suit for extreme environments, necessarily being somewhat bulkier, which would reduce combat effectiveness. But then again, sometimes one needs to anyway.

Armoring against various in-universe weapons is a natural as well. With plenty of plasma or laser weapons, an ablative coating for the armor is likely to significantly reduce damage done by plasma/laser weapon hits by simply ablating the place hit. Naturally, this would work fine until the ablative coating ran out.

With kinetic weapons (railguns & coilguns included, as well as big-ass gravity hammers), this gets into the issue of impact negation. With a gel-suit type of underlay for the armor, coupled with gyros within the armor, a kinetic hit's raw force could be significantly reduced to the wearer (thus preventing the wearer from getting knocked down as often), though at the cost of heavy armor plating on the suit itself to take the initial impact properly. This would naturally get into an arms race of armor piercing rounds versus armor that can spread the impact outward enough to deaden the impact enough to not be penetrated.

Note that this can also include shielding of some kind if it exists in-universe, providing an extra layer of protection for the wearer, and various backup systems to make sure the shield stays up as often as possible.

3. Enhancement
In the case of Halo's MJOLNIR armor, the armor itself accentuates the wearer's movements so much that an ordinary human can't use it for fear of snapping bones and muscle. When in the proper hands though, this makes the wearer's strength incredibly powerful.

This can be done by using many sensors within the suit to track the wearer's movements down to the smallest details, and using servos within the armor to mimic and enhance the action as needed. If this sort of strength was "always on", minute and delicate tasks would become nearly impossible without a lot of adjustment. Therefore, using it to simply negate the armor's weight to the wearer to the point where the wearer doesn't feel like he's wearing a suit at all (apart from being in a helmet) is more likely, and having the option to enhance leaps or punches as needed. Or, a smart computer system within the suit to judge when the user's trying to throw their back & hips into something, and accentuating accordingly.

Other possibilities are:
- a jetpack (which while tremendous fun and worthy of many songs, isn't especially subtle in most cases - though can be excellent for air-drop deployments of troops)
- a cloaking device or feature of some kind (i.e. using cameras all over the suit to "copy" surrounding temperature and scenery; would naturally work less well the faster the wearer moves)
- a computer interface in the fingers of the suit (thus allowing ease of access with the suit's computer to hack door locks, interface with terminals through the suit's HUD, etc.)

[Stofsk]

Shouldn't you also add another category: how to power the bloody thing? Because that is what I would consider the biggest limiter to powered armour.

I guess it also depends on the type of powered armour. Like if we're talking Mass Effect style hardsuits, you don't have to power mechanical servo joints, you just need whatever powers the kinetic barriers and omnitool. And probably HUD. But if we're talking Starship Troopers style Mobile Infantry, then... that's something else.

[rhoenix]

Shouldn't you also add another category: how to power the bloody thing? Because that is what I would consider the biggest limiter to powered armour.

I guess it also depends on the type of powered armour. Like if we're talking Mass Effect style hardsuits, you don't have to power mechanical servo joints, you just need whatever powers the kinetic barriers and omnitool. And probably HUD. But if we're talking Starship Troopers style Mobile Infantry, then... that's something else.

This is likely going to be a limitation, yes. Any power plant feasible for a fighter or drone-type design would have to be shrunk substantially to fit within a human frame of this sort of armor. If this is done with a fusion plant though, this armor could probably operate for substantial periods of time, only needing minute amounts of fuel from time to time. If this is feasible in-universe, then all sorts of long-patrol heroics are possible with teams in this sort of armor.

Alternatively, it could simply run on rechargable batteries, using various sorts of energy outputs (live electrical wires, sunlight, even kinetic motion) to help supplement the charge. This would be far better suited (forgive the pun) for shorter-term engagements though, such as extra-vehicular excursions from ship's marines and the like. In this design, the suit is unlikely to help power any guns, and all attachments (such as jetpacks) would have their own power supply.

[Hotfoot]

WRT Power:

Current Power Storage technology sucks. It does, there's not much else to say about it. It's better than making a power plant by leaps and bounds for portable stuff, but really, it sucks. Imagine the battery life of a modern laptop computer. Now imagine that same power cell hooked up to a series of mechanical motors that suck power at massive rates because they are incredibly inefficient. The same batteries that we use on electric cars would have a fraction of the life on a bipedal (or quadrupedal) frame. Legs aren't efficient. Neither are arms.

And while there are options for getting better batteries and better generation tech, many of them are decades out for just modest increases, like making laptop batteries 10x better (a day instead of a few hours). That's great for running computers and communication gear, but still nowhere near enough for powered armor.

The gear we have in development today is largely load-bearing gear, of which part of the load is its own power source. The more/heavier gear a soldier can carry for longer, the better. It means weapons and armor can be heavier, which usually means better, without fucking the dude carrying it. It means more supplies can be trucked around, and so forth. But the second that solider loses the power supply, all that shit gets dumped, fast, because if you can't keep up, you're dead.

Fusion is, well, nice and all, but let's be realistic here. The temperature a fusion plant generates is massive. There are two problems with this, the least of which is that you can forget about hiding from thermal (or anything else, really). The big one? Cooking the poor bastard wearing the suit alive. And his squad. Room temperature fusion is very much not a thing, unless magic is involved. And as for fuel, it's not so minute, it's just that what is used is relatively common, in the universal sense.

As far as enhancing human abilities? Sure, in limited respects. Strength, sure. Speed? Maybe for running. Accuracy? As far as stability is concerned, sure. Ultimately, you're going to run into the mass issue. With heavy armor, increased loads from gear, and the weight of whatever is powering this thing, plus all the goodies, you are going to be hard pressed to match human, much less surpass it. Remember that in Halo, the SPARTANs are also massively cybernetically enhanced super-soldiers, not unlike 40K's Space Marines.

The biggest issue with hard armor is that while it may offer the best protection, it's not going to be the best for moving around in, and getting cover will usually matter more in a fight than how tough your armor is, because there's always something big enough to penetrate it, and when your joints are obstructed by armored plates, you're just not that agile, fast, or precise. Same with aiming a gun. Say what you will, but I don't like wearing gloves while doing things that require fine manipulation, much less armored gloves.

The rest of the stuff, the communication gear and crazy attachment tech? That can be put into use by guys without hard armor. It is today, after all.

[rhoenix]

An additional article on the subject, on the subject of the Crysis games' Nanosuit, and the real-life technologies the concept was based on:

"Nanotechnology offers unprecedented possibilities for progress—defeating poverty, starvation, and disease, opening up outer space, and expanding human capacities. But it also brings unprecedented risks—the specter of devastating wars fought with far more powerful weapons of mass destruction." - Chris Phoenix, Director of Research, Center for Responsible Nanotechnology.

When you step into one of the games in the Crysis series, you step into something called a "Nanosuit." It makes you a stronger, better solider.

The Nanosuit is supposedly made up of a material called CryFibril, also referred in the game as Nanoweave or Nanofiber. CryFibril is the single most important component of the suit, as it is the medium for the various Nanosuit functions. In Crysis 2, the CryFibril got a major overhaul, making the Nanosuit lighter, stronger and more energy efficient.

Someone at Crytek must have been doing their homework because CryFibril looks suspiciously like a recent real-world breakthrough in nanomaterial technology.

Rise of the digital battlefield—war v2.0

Medical and military scientists alike claim that nanotechnology will transform the future as we know it. With the global proliferation of nanoscale technologies, from the research bench to the consumer market, it is both inevitable and fast-approaching. The question remains though, what will the future landscape look like? The answer really depends on who you ask.

My previous article about nanotechnology in video games—specifically, the Metal Gear series—took a glimpse at how nanotechnology could completely revolutionize the future of warfare. Using some not-so-far-fetched science, soldiers and machines can be integrated into a massive command-and-control network with the help of computers, epidermal electronic sensors and wireless communication systems. The central combat environment would provide detailed battlefield information and control to commanders in real time, in what Colin Milburn (nano culture researcher), dubbed the "Digital Battlefield". Or maybe more appropriately: War—the video game.

"Taking inspiration from the Future Warrior 2020 program, we developed the Nano Fibre Suit [a.k.a Nanosuit) that can enhance strength, speed and armour levels. The player can max the speed and dash across an open field, change to the strength setting and silently punch out a sentry." - Bernd Diemer, Senior Game Designer, Crytek 2006

Does the suit make the man, or does the man make the suit?

Crysis 3 is the newest installment in the Crysis series. For the unfamiliar, Crysis 3 is set in the near future (2047ish) and follows the adventures of Alcatraz Prophet, a solider equipped with a nanotechnology-inspired battle suit, aptly named the Nanosuit. Prophet must protect the human race from complete extension from the Charybdis, a race of technologically-advanced aliens that are dead-set on our destruction. The Nanosuit comes fully-fitted with three primary combat modes: Armour, Power and Stealth. These modes allow Prophet to battle the Charybdis with superhuman abilities. Let's take a peek behind the curtain and delve into the science of the CryNet Nanosuit.

CryFibril—fabric of the future or is it already here?

Graphene (pictured above) is a one-atom thick sheet of carbon arranged in a repeating hexane pattern that has some really amazing mechanical properties. It might not look like much, but the discovery of graphene in 2004 was a big deal. In fact, the researchers were awarded the Nobel Prize just 6 years later, which is almost unheard of. So what's so special about this graphene stuff anyways?

Well in short, graphene is one the strongest materials ever manufactured. It has a breaking strength 100 times greater than steel and weighs thousands of times less (10,194 times less to be exact). Graphene can be rolled up into tubes, called carbon nanotubes, which are even stronger than graphene sheets. Carbon nanotubes can then be spun together and woven into fibers which are much more flexible and useful as engineering materials, making them the ideal fabric for the Nanosuit. If you can believe it, carbon nanotubes are even harder than diamond. So it comes as no surprise that research is already underway towards developing carbon nanotube composite body armour for police and military applications as well as building an elevator to space, just to name a few ideas.

Graphene can be rolled up into a tube just like a sheet of paper and spun into super strong carbon nanofibers, the perfect material for an armoured Nanosuit.

"From shape-shifting armour to fabric that can turn away microbes, as well as bullets to new power sources, the defense industries are launching major initiatives and planning for Nanotechnology. The basic research in Nanotechnology conducted at these centers will provide the foundation upon which real world applications can be built." - Kevin G. Coleman, Senior Fellow, Technolytics Institute

Maximum Armour

In a pinch, Prophet can divert power to the CryFibril Nano suit armour to temporarily increase protection from incoming high-speed objects, blunt trauma and energy blasts. This process, called Armour Mode, supposedly tightens up the suit's outer weave, which decreases the suit's power upon impact, rather than valuable health.

Interestingly, there is a real world nanomaterial counterpart currently under development called D30 gel. This protective nanogel is a dilatant non-Newtonian fluid, which is a very fancy way of saying it is flexible when moving slowly, but rigidifies upon impact, before quickly returning to its flexible state again. These types of materials behave very strangely. Check it out on YouTube, you won't regret it. Studies have down that D30 gel can absorb much of the energy from a shock or impact, greatly reducing the damage to the wearer. It is already in use in protective sports equipment and is coming soon to a battlefield near you.

Maximum Power

When Prophet needs to quickly sprint across the battlefield, leap to cover on top of a Pinger or toss a wrecked car at a pesky group of Ceph, Power Mode is the way to go. Power Mode uses up Nanosuit energy for as long as it is active and grants the player superhuman strength.

How can we rationalize this with some real world science? Well, we could talk about a powered exoskeleton like the Raytheon XOS. This would fit the bill in terms of Power Mode functionally but it is hardly a nanoscale technology. No, we need to go smaller, much smaller.

An international team of researchers lead by Ray Baughman at the University of Texas have come up with a nano-sized alternative. They have developed an artificial nano fiber muscle. These nano fibers are made up of ropes of carbon nanotubes which are twisted together into thicker yarns and set into paraffin wax.

The bundles of nano fibers can contract rapidly when exposed to heat or electricity, up to 200 times stronger than human muscle. The manufacturing process will have to be improved to weave larger fabrics, like our trusty Nanosuit, but the basic premise checks out.

"Military camouflage outfits that blend with a variety of environments without needing an outside power source—blue, say, when at sea, and then brown in a desert environment—is where this work could eventually lead." - George Bachand, Team Leader, Sandia National Laboratories

Cloaking

Is there an annoying Ceph patrol up ahead guarding the objective? Need to sneak by a sentry and avoid being detected? No problem. Disappear from sight with Stealth Mode. This Nanosuit ability also drains power but makes the wearer invisible. The suit's surface can dynamically scan the surrounding area and modify its skin colour to match in real time. This is the principle behind active camouflage. Animals like the octopus, chameleon and sea horse have already figured it out. Humans, on the other hand, are still working on it.

One of the first experimental active camouflage prototypes came out of the lab of Susumu Tachi from University of Tokyo in 2003. They developed a camouflage system in which a video camera captures the background behind an object and displays it on a cloth in front using an external projector. It didn't really work very well, but it inspired others to try and make their own cloaking machines. There are several new approaches currently under development using metamaterials which can actually bend light around an object. This technology only works for extremely small objects, so what about our Nanosuit?

Researchers from Sandia National Laboratories (a subsidiary of Lockheed Martin) have been working on a dramatically different strategy since 2009. The principle is to fabricate a material with differently-coloured lights attached to motors, which are embedded at the surface. These lights can be rotated and turned on and off dynamically to match the colour of the surroundings. Sounds pretty straightforward right? Well it is, until you scale it down to the molecular level.

Their motors are not electric; they are protein motors which run on tiny microtube rails. Their lights don't have bulbs. They are made up of quantum dot nano crystals. Quantum dots are highly fluorescent nanoscale metal semiconductors which can absorb and emit light of different wavelengths (colours). They are commonly used in nanomedicine as imaging and diagnostic tools due to their small size and favourable optical properties.

Now imagine millions of quantum dots that are differently coloured (red, green, blue) all moving around in controlled patterns at the surface of the Nanosuit. By controlling the intensity and position of these quantum dots, and with the proper video input to capture the surrounding environment, you could get very energy-efficient cloaking. While this technology is clearly in the early stages of development, it is an interesting possibility and one to consider for the Nanosuit.

"Video game traditions here shape the way that military nanoscience presents itself to the public... striving for a digital future where wars are rebootable and soldier's lives are replayable, thanks to the struggles of intrepid researches." - Colin Milburn, Nanoculture Researcher, Everyday Nanowars: Video Games and the Crisis of the Digital Battlefield

It is a wild, wild world down at the nanoscale, and scientists are just beginning to scratch the surface. Whether in our socks and sunscreen, or on the dystopian battlefields of the future, it won't be long before products made with nano technology are an inescapable part of our everyday life. I tip my hat at Crytek for coming up with an extremely cool (and more-or-less plausible) science-inspired Nanosuit.

No offence to Alcatraz, I think it is pretty clear that in this case, the suit makes the man.

The universe of Crysis is set as much nearer to our time than far-flung scifi, but the ideas here are intriguing, especially as it pertains to the concept of futuristic body armor.