Catsuit exoskeleton and 'Simbot' 8.4 {invention idea}

[Amorphos]

Exokat [catsuit exoskeleton] and Simbot 8.4 {invention idea}

I was watching a documentary wherein a lady Quadriplegic was operating a robotic arm direct from her brain, and I thought to myself, what she needs is a catsuit exoskeleton. So I set out to invent one, don’t know why ~ I just like the challenge of working stuff out mostly. Below, the link will take you to the full size 4k images I made [in fallout 4] to show how the idea works… see what you think and whether or not I have cracked it. The images are representative, I’d like the florettes to be 4mm wide and 6mm deep, for all three layers of hexagon cubes [in a sheet].
Note that this is a very simple and rudimentary design made by utilising existing [but altered for new use] technology and materials ~ mostly graphene. My first thought was that someone would make the whole thing from carbon nano-tubes which can be shrunk and expanded via an electrical charge. However, that method apparently requires to much power, which is why I guess they haven’t already been made. Ergo until something a bit more sci-fi manifests itself, you will have to make do with these…


4k
https://photos.app.goo.gl/PzhgZYqNnHsqzVNk6



How it works

You first have a net sensor-suit, with simple sensors to detect movement [of the muscles they are touching]. this is then translated into expansions and contractions of the florettes via valves e.g. a muscle of the users body contracts, and the corresponding set of florettes contract respectively. An expansion is achieved by releasing its air into the third air from the second cushion layer of florettes. This the third air-cushion layer is at a lower pressure than the second, which then in turn is lower than the first high pressure layer [closest to the skin].

The second layer in the sandwich is the hexagon box shaped ‘florettes’, each composed of 6 accordion air-bags with rigid vertical pipes at each corner [carrying the electrics to where required]. These double up as braces such to stop vertical movement so they will expand mostly laterally.

The sensor-suit will also have a network of tubes akin to veins, taking compressed air [or liquid air] to regions of the first air-cushion layer, where the gas is released. The idea here is that rather than trying to wire up many thousands of florettes and get all those pressures correct [which is probably impossible and is otherwise the main problem I needed to overcome], an air vein can deliver to regions of hexagonal florette clusters and the released gas will equalise within the volume of said layer. this effectively manifesting as an ‘universal pipe’ to everywhere in the second layer. This second layer of florettes may open their valves at their base, and allow the required amount of gas into the accordion bags, such to expand. Then the third layer is used simply as a bag to empty expelled gas from the florettes.

If needs be, then more complex versions with valves particular to each bag inside each florette can be used, however I don’t anticipate such a need. Basically the suit is pushing and pulling mostly around the joints, and from various pull-points on the torso and limb ends.

Hopefully this system will be reasonably efficient, as a backpack [power-pack] with batteries, pumps and compressors etc, will just have to make up the difference between the pressure yielded between the first and third layer.



How the ‘Simbot’ works…?

An exact copy of the ‘exokat’ [above] wrapped around e.g. a graphene aerogel manikin [or some skeletal stickman type thing], acts akin to a doppelganger mimicking the actions of the user on a 1:1 basis [or indeed enhanced]. it will need VR and mobile phone technology, but will basically work like an animated 3d model in e.g. a video game, then receiving a signal from the suit the user is wearing. It will mostly be operated by the user remotely, but the user will see through its eyes so to say and hence be able to make adjustments so it don’t keep falling over.

I don’t know if the simbot idea would work yet, but unless I have missed something right in front of me - which does happen a lot lol, then although Its not sci-fi magic like in the movies, the exokat in my mind will work.


Purpose

No doubt the world will use them for everything from the military to prostitution, but I invented them for gaming and for the disabled.

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edit:

NB. Some people seem to be concerned that the suit would bulge out in places, however, some areas would be expanding whilst others would be shrinking. then given that those two things are equalized [which they would be], the surface area would remain the same et al.

Secondly; At worst I could add some ribs or wires to stop it expanding beyond a given point and ballooning out [beyond the mimic of the original], whether that be a body inside or at a remote location. I had figured that if the base layer material was a silk catsuit made to fit closely or even perfectly [perhaps a more expensive version], then that would have an amount of give relative to the gaps in the thread. Beyond which it would strongly resist being pulled.


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[Sar1n]

Exoskeletons are nothing new. The theory behind them has been around for decades, but like space elevator, the technology needed for proper execution is still lacking...

Critical areas are input recognition and response time, size constraints and power supply. First one isn't addressed here, so the real question is, is your design improvement in other areas compared to current designs? AFAIK most current designs revolve around usage of electric servomotors as actuators. The use of air pressure difference as motive power instead is interesting, though I have no idea if it can be more efficient than current designs, or if it can even exert enough force to mimic human musculature.

[Amorphos]

thanks for interesting response...

Well the response times are shortened in that the sensor suit gets signals from their locality, which would then be sent as a signal like a phone. There would be a delay, but not much greater than that from your nerve endings to your processed conscious reaction.?

The speed would not be as great as with servo motors although the main action would be in small areas akin to hinges at the smallest part of a joint [using the smallest arcs available]. equally so, in my mind the movements would not need to be much faster than ours. My main concerns are stopping injury rather than causing it, maybe a little extra speed for short periods would be ok. Strength on the other hand, well, lets just say that pneumatics are what moves all the heaviest stuff in the world ~ and it doesn’t need to be much bigger than a generator to move an oil rig along a track. I remember that much at least from tech engineering at collage.

[Elfdude]

There's a variety of problems here. Firstly, you don't seem to take into account the strain you cause on the human body, what are you bracing this motive power against? Even slight increases in power stress the joints immensely and require tight controls to prevent the user from maiming themselves. With such a complicated design the ability to reliably stop the system to save the user is nill meaning engineering would have to be nearly perfect to overcome this and I don't know how you could do such a thing. Additionally you're going to have enormous amount of heat just from the body that needs to escape somehow, air is a nearly perfect insulator and this sort of suit sounds like it would act as a giant parka. At 6mm thick you've significantly cut down dexterity and you're going to have major issues with malfunction at joints and stretching areas. The human body stretches and moves in 3 dimensions, this suit does not seem capable of replicating that. Making graphene usable at this scale would be a feat that is beyond literally any technology we have today. While we can make graphene films to a certain extent making durable applicable graphene for applicability, i.e. in a fiber or air tight sheet, is well beyond what we've been able to do.

The use of air bladders to make the power similarly has an issue. Air power and pressure systems get their strength from the surface area to volume ratio, the smaller your volume of air bladder is the weaker the overall pressure you can exert, this means that regulating the pressure would be nearly impossible and combined with the 3 dimensional stretch of the underlying human body you would likely blow or completely render the suit ineffective with each breath. Even if you managed to hold your breath, the flex of your heart beat would be at the same level of the volume change in the suit rendering it ineffective.

All in all, the use of air pressure in this sort of system would be cumbersome and ineffectual, you'd be better off using something like liquid but that has similar design issues and ultimately something like a water bladder is still going to be many eons away from approaching the effectiveness of current servomotors. My advice is research what we use currently and why. Although your design could be an effective pressure suit, albeit a hyper-expensive one.

[Amorphos]

There's a variety of problems here. Firstly, you don't seem to take into account the strain you cause on the human body, what are you bracing this motive power against?

Sorry, I meant to state that these would only be enhancing movement [on the able bodied]. you would set the pressures up in the particular according to the athletes needs. Existing exo-arms are currently in use, ergo I would use the same pressures/power.
At the smallest arc of say a joint, the cells would contract and vice versa for the outside arcs.

With such a complicated design the ability to reliably stop the system to save the user is nil, meaning engineering would have to be nearly perfect to overcome this and I don't know how you could do such a thing.

Its actually very simple; each cell of three layers would respond directly to the stimulus of the immediate area on the user. The computer would then animate respectively. To me these things are a matter of fine tuning.

this sort of suit sounds like it would act as a giant parka.

So you cool the air down. I had considered this for different climates. There is nothing stopping us from using a semi-breathable base fabric, such that some air from the suit would do that. I originally thought of this when considering the need to let the skin breathe.

The use of air bladders to make the power similarly has an issue. Air power and pressure systems get their strength from the surface area to volume ratio, the smaller your volume of air bladder is the weaker the overall pressure you can exert, this means that regulating the pressure would be nearly impossible and combined with the 3 dimensional stretch of the underlying human body you would likely blow or completely render the suit ineffective with each breath. Even if you managed to hold your breath, the flex of your heart beat would be at the same level of the volume change in the suit rendering it ineffective.

The ‘air bladders’ don’t make the power. I haven’t added anything which has already been invented, such as compressors, batteries and servo motors. The cells are just expanding and contracting, relative to how much air you put in them. It takes people some time - even my bruv who’s a physicist, to see clearly what’s going on here. The middle layer of hexagons are mostly mimicking muscle movement - that’s what the movement only in the middle layer is doing [laterally].

[Elfdude]

You don't seem to get what I'm saying, the Air bladders, (inflation/deflation) will not work at this scale to generate reasonable kinetic energy. If you were to somehow overcome this you would stress the body immensely as the main structure the suit is pulling/pushing against is the human body. You cannot use a breathable fabric without losing the pressurization of the system and if you built it in to limited areas these would further decrease the kinetic power of the suit. Cooling the air would require a massive amount of power which simply put does not exist.

[Amorphos]

Firstly let me say thanks for the considered reply - wish I could do that more lol.

The suit does primarily not use kinetic energy, it utilises static pneumatic pressure pushing against the structure of surrounding florettes, which provides the force required. There will be pushing and pulling though - as you say, yet the pushing of areas [to mimic muscle motions and to add a little oomph to movements] will make the suit expand outwards, and the pulling inwards, would be pushing against the first layer. Remember that the first layer is at a higher pressure than the second. Secondly, each hexagon sandwich can be thought of as a cell, each with rigid vertical support [like scaffolding] at the corners.

Sorry I am not very good at explaining, its a new concept and I have a visual intellect.

edit; remember that the stiff arms would be doing most of the work! - same way as pneumatic struts but semi-flexible. the florettes layer is there to mimic the muscle movements, such to be transfered to the exact copy at a 1:1 basis.

[Amorphos]

Example mode of use [it would help eh!]

Imagine you have a bomb to defuse; so you put one of these suits on, then a simulative robot copy comprised of an exact copy of the suit with some manner of skeletal frame [or aerogel manikin], would mimic your movements. So you stand on a gaming platform, and the simbot copies your movements akin to VR, I call it RVR [real virtual reality]. so now you can walk right over to that bomb and nothing is going to happen to you if it goes off!

I hate to add the obvious 100% safe sex thing too!

[Elfdude]

Pneumatic energy must become kinetic energy to do work. Expanding or contracting is transferring kinetic energy done through conversion of pneumatic energy to kinetic energy. The problem here is that pneumatic energy becomes kinetic energy with regards to surface area to volume meaning small surface areas require extraordinarily high pressure to achieve strength which is problematic in itself. To avoid transferring pneumatic energy to the body you would need to redesign the cells entirely.

Which is to say your idea is ignoring basic structural possibilities. The graphene alone would cost millions of dollars, the pneumatic idea ignores kinetic limitations and essentially you've designed a very very ineffective pressure suit which can easily be outdone by servomotors which are both cheaper and can be made smaller.

[Amorphos]

Servo motors require to much energy - otherwise they would have already built them. try making a catsuit out of them.

you could use a laminate of man-made silk and graphene for extra strength. laminates are currently available. or silk with carbon wire.

i don't see the problem with what is essentially three inflated layers [balloons inside one another et al!], one of which expands stretching the whole thing, such to map muscle movements. if it needs more support then that's just a matter of the base or other materials elasticity, thickness etc.

[Amorphos]

NB. Some people seem to be concerned that the suit would bulge out in places, however, some areas would be expanding whilst others would be shrinking. then given that those two things are equalized [which they would be], the surface area would remain the same et al.

Secondly; At worst I could add some ribs or wires to stop it expanding beyond a given point and ballooning out [beyond the mimic of the original], whether that be a body inside or at a remote location. I had figured that if the base layer material was a silk catsuit made to fit closely or even perfectly [perhaps a more expensive version], then that would have an amount of give relative to the gaps in the thread. Beyond which it would strongly resist being pulled.

- added to op

[Amorphos]

currently updating with modifications; a version of the suit will now be attached to the robotic armour, moving over a 'slip~suit' of silk. this will mean more power can be used, and the suit cannot obviously expand beyond its armour shell.

I should add as it wasn’t obvious, that the suit would mostly be doing only pulling motions. The only time the cells expand such to push outwards would be when reverting to shape. To put that in context, I thought of this idea as I was imagining an injury-proof outfit NFL style. Those guys need it! The suit in a non cyber-sport would only be there to compensate for injury causing movements, and maybe to add enough power to effectively make the suit and its armour weightless.

An example of utility would be when the leg moves to straighten after bending, the cells along the top line of the suit would be pulling, and the cells on the inside leg would be expanding back into shape [I.e. which they would be standing in at ease]. such movements would be acting upon pull points at each joint, which would be an integral part of the suit/armour [where they attach].

So now if you want to run fast and jump high, its all about how much power you can >safely< get into a couple of square inches on the toes. As it is the suit being acted upon and not the persons body, there would be an increment of sfe extra power which can be applied. People with half legs can now have fast knees and be super troupers.

[Amorphos]

8.8 update

A high resolution 3D mesh will be mapped exactly to a physical equivalent. At each intersection of the vertices, there would be a sensor and a valve*. The lines betwixt which will have the required plumbing. At these junctures the gas [from condensers in the back pack] will be released relative to pressure change requirements.

alt/There should be I estimate 8 [round] different cell sizes ~ in diameter, each containing all the electronics and electrics/plumbing which they require. These can be affixed at every point*, and fit to the different curves of the body, thus will aid in the suit-body efficiency. Mostly there will be lines of movement through e.g. the top and base segments of a given cell, such to pull one side or the opposite on a limb or limbs. So to pull the e.g. leg straight, the line along the top of the leg would pull, and the cells around it would pull sympathetically. Thus yielding buffer zones around the ‘pull line’ such to resist abnormal and injury causing movements.

Additional gas can be pumped where required. To aid this, there would need to be a vein like plumbing network, with larger arteries going where they will be needed most.

Nb; around version 3, I had considered reducing all the facets of an earlier design [similar to 8.4] to the minimal ~ as required pneumatic apparatus. Yet I think having a mapped cyber-body-suit will have all the above advantages and more in general dexterity. It is conceivable that e.g. animals or fantastical beasts could be mapped similarly. Then it is up to ones imagination as to whether or not you put an engine & robotic skeleton etc in that thing and use it like a motorcycle! Perhaps add artificial Gecko feet to run along walls sideways and bounce around corners ~ you know, if you wanna die n stuff.

Did I mention giant robot fighting RVR?


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