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Pilot for all the mechs, it's more of a gigantic, padded armor safety suit. There are very little controls inside the actual "cockpit" of the machines. The "PATA cables" running along the suit are hyper-reactive sensors that more or less translate the pilot's would-be movements to the machine, allowing more fluid control.
Category All / All
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Size 1628 x 1652px
File Size 1.17 MB
Aw muh gawd! Ohhh lawd! <3 <3 <3
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motio.....ptical_systems
So you used direct mechanical motion measurement. But wait! Classical metal-film potentiometers are too fragile for military use, and they wear off easily. Absolute encoders can't provide the necessary resolution, and their construction is too bulky to be wearable. So, you implemented a very elegant and dead simple solution of doing tensometric measurement. The "flat cables" are in fact strain gages laminated to a thin elastic foil operating in linear elasticity.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strai.....es_in_practice
Thus, you measure the tension his lims and digits impose on the sensors. Clever! The measuring sensors can be shielded against EMI, and other cables can also be run through the same elastic conduit. A multi-channel AFE samples the strain gages with about 5 kHz sampling rate, which is more than enough to capture full motion of the pilot. DSP in the chest unit scales and filters the signals, preparing them to be fed to the mech or exosuit controller.
Squee! Russian school of simple and proven solutions.
My approach would be to use MEMS gyroscopes fastened to key points throughout pilot's body, and the chest unit would act as a reference point for 3D coordinates of individual sensors. This system would be insensitive to EMP, given the sensors are sufficiently shielded. It would be far easier to shield a tiny MEMS gyro than an 8-inch long strain gage strip. Still, power feeds to the sensors would be susceptible to EM radiation, but there are a few workarounds. For example, running optical fiber links instead of cooper cabling, and providing each sensor with a 1-year battery for operation independent from the central unit.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motio.....ptical_systems
So you used direct mechanical motion measurement. But wait! Classical metal-film potentiometers are too fragile for military use, and they wear off easily. Absolute encoders can't provide the necessary resolution, and their construction is too bulky to be wearable. So, you implemented a very elegant and dead simple solution of doing tensometric measurement. The "flat cables" are in fact strain gages laminated to a thin elastic foil operating in linear elasticity.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strai.....es_in_practice
Thus, you measure the tension his lims and digits impose on the sensors. Clever! The measuring sensors can be shielded against EMI, and other cables can also be run through the same elastic conduit. A multi-channel AFE samples the strain gages with about 5 kHz sampling rate, which is more than enough to capture full motion of the pilot. DSP in the chest unit scales and filters the signals, preparing them to be fed to the mech or exosuit controller.
Squee! Russian school of simple and proven solutions.
My approach would be to use MEMS gyroscopes fastened to key points throughout pilot's body, and the chest unit would act as a reference point for 3D coordinates of individual sensors. This system would be insensitive to EMP, given the sensors are sufficiently shielded. It would be far easier to shield a tiny MEMS gyro than an 8-inch long strain gage strip. Still, power feeds to the sensors would be susceptible to EM radiation, but there are a few workarounds. For example, running optical fiber links instead of cooper cabling, and providing each sensor with a 1-year battery for operation independent from the central unit.
*opens his closet, looking for suitable clothes for Hal Emmerich cosplay*
Oookay. Here's the deal: I need an angel investor. Kickstarter can't generate enough funds for a complex military project.
How about asking a state-owned enterprise, you ask? Nada. I doubt Russia, China, or DARPA would be interested in large mechs, because as cool as they look, they are very easy and exposed target on the battlefield. No one likes casualties or material losses. That's why people invented tanks and mobile artillery; they have a low profile. If there's a nuke going off or a massive artillery sweep, large and collosus-class mechs would be the first to go. Plus, having an arm-mounted cannon at two story attitude doesn't make a huge difference than shooting it from ground. A light but concentrated strike (e.g. sniper shot) could be fired from an air drone. How much armor would a mech need to survive 10 minutes of 120mm AP rounds barrage? How much energy would it take to move or run at 40 mph?
Think of battlefields of the future: Middle East, East Europe, India-Pakistan area, urban sprawls of Central and South America, etc. Poor countries won't buy mechs, they'd rather wage war using impoverished, desperate rat fighters and suicide bombers. Mechs have no market there. "Civilized" world likes to keep it's soldiers in a safe environment, so in heavy and risky operations and in open battlefields the choice would be ground and air drones, in all sizes and shapes. Even if there was a mech-like ground drone, it would be remotely controlled or guided by an internal AI.
What the defense industries in "civilized" world really need aren't mechs but heavy powered exosuits. Something no taller than 2 - 2.5 meters, fast and maneuverable. Think about a surgical strike in an urban area. A PMC or SWAT team would really like to suit up in something safe, fast, and connected. We don't have the technology for Iron Man-esque suit, it's just fiction. What we can and may do is one of these designs: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/14146619 but a smaller one! Smaller, smaller, smaller! Like the warrior on the commission you did for me (the bigger one).
Where do we start then? Wait until Google acquires BAE Systems, or Microsoft mergers with GE. Then wait until that supercorp buys or makes itself a PMC department. And that's our angel investor right there.
Oookay. Here's the deal: I need an angel investor. Kickstarter can't generate enough funds for a complex military project.
How about asking a state-owned enterprise, you ask? Nada. I doubt Russia, China, or DARPA would be interested in large mechs, because as cool as they look, they are very easy and exposed target on the battlefield. No one likes casualties or material losses. That's why people invented tanks and mobile artillery; they have a low profile. If there's a nuke going off or a massive artillery sweep, large and collosus-class mechs would be the first to go. Plus, having an arm-mounted cannon at two story attitude doesn't make a huge difference than shooting it from ground. A light but concentrated strike (e.g. sniper shot) could be fired from an air drone. How much armor would a mech need to survive 10 minutes of 120mm AP rounds barrage? How much energy would it take to move or run at 40 mph?
Think of battlefields of the future: Middle East, East Europe, India-Pakistan area, urban sprawls of Central and South America, etc. Poor countries won't buy mechs, they'd rather wage war using impoverished, desperate rat fighters and suicide bombers. Mechs have no market there. "Civilized" world likes to keep it's soldiers in a safe environment, so in heavy and risky operations and in open battlefields the choice would be ground and air drones, in all sizes and shapes. Even if there was a mech-like ground drone, it would be remotely controlled or guided by an internal AI.
What the defense industries in "civilized" world really need aren't mechs but heavy powered exosuits. Something no taller than 2 - 2.5 meters, fast and maneuverable. Think about a surgical strike in an urban area. A PMC or SWAT team would really like to suit up in something safe, fast, and connected. We don't have the technology for Iron Man-esque suit, it's just fiction. What we can and may do is one of these designs: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/14146619 but a smaller one! Smaller, smaller, smaller! Like the warrior on the commission you did for me (the bigger one).
Where do we start then? Wait until Google acquires BAE Systems, or Microsoft mergers with GE. Then wait until that supercorp buys or makes itself a PMC department. And that's our angel investor right there.
I was never a fan of huge mechs, haha. Most about all of them I've designed are around 2 meters tall. It always bugged me about how implausible and what massive targets larger machines would be. The ones you linked me to I thought up after seeing how I fit into a shopping basket at work (don't ask).
Powered suits for sure would be the most ideal way to go about things, but the artist in me still loves designing more "mech" shapes. I always try and keep in mind that they should be at least plausible in some environment, somewhere.
Powered suits for sure would be the most ideal way to go about things, but the artist in me still loves designing more "mech" shapes. I always try and keep in mind that they should be at least plausible in some environment, somewhere.
Haha, right. Why artists depict angels with feather wings, when in reality they should be going in shuttles or wearing jet-packs. Same with mechs... I don't know much about their history, and when they appeared in games and media, but their humanoid shape tells me they must've started as artistic metaphors, not realistic mechanical war tools. Why there aren't 3-legged or 6-legged mechs**, why they don't follow nature in their design, but rely on human shape? At some point, mechs connect masculine power and engineering skill. And engineering skill is also a masculine trait... So, it's like, big boys playground. That's how it started.
**(Sorry, my bad, they're already making these: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD2V8GFqk_Y)
**(Sorry, my bad, they're already making these: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD2V8GFqk_Y)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sRlFQLwg3w even newer!
And the less practical but still awesome Kuratas - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KuPDQ8H3qM
I always figured a multi-ped mech would be the most reaslistic and plausible (and certainly the most stable) but with recent developments and other robotics, I'm not so sure. Crazy-cool developments going on all around, and I can't wait to see where it all goes. Maybe if we're lucky we won't blow ourselves up with it, but you know, humans and stuff.
And the less practical but still awesome Kuratas - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KuPDQ8H3qM
I always figured a multi-ped mech would be the most reaslistic and plausible (and certainly the most stable) but with recent developments and other robotics, I'm not so sure. Crazy-cool developments going on all around, and I can't wait to see where it all goes. Maybe if we're lucky we won't blow ourselves up with it, but you know, humans and stuff.
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