Real World Iron Man

[ultranos]

I know I mentioned to some people (Splash, Trout, and Besyd in particular) at D*C that I had an article from Popular Science about real technologies very close to doing what Iron Man can. I believe I also promised either scanning them or copying them into PDF form.

Before I did that, however, I decided to be clever:

Building the Real Iron Man from the May 2008 issue of Popular Science. Same article, but in their web archives. It's on Raytheon's XOS exoskeleton suit, and it's obviously nowhere near Tony Stark's suit, but hey, we're getting there.

Comments

[splash-the-cat.livejournal.com]

Sweet!

[ultranos-fic.livejournal.com]

I thought you'd like it!

(Eep! Our campus movie group is showing Iron Man this weekend in one of the big lecture halls! Yayz!)

[besyd.livejournal.com]

Our campus movie group is showing Iron Man this weekend in one of the big lecture halls!

Okay, I'm jealous in that you get to watch it with like-minded folk (again - though probably not so much of the shipper variety). But at least I get to go watch it on the big screen a time or two more, since it's just down the road here in Alabama.

[ultranos-fic.livejournal.com]

Hee. Yes, I get to be a engineering dork about things. :P Although, really, I can't wait for the DVD to come out.

[besyd.livejournal.com]

I'm taking the day off so I can (a) get the DVD as soon as the store opens and (b) watch it all day long. LOL!

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

Yay yay yay! Brilliant work.

[ultranos-fic.livejournal.com]

Isn't it awesome? I love being an engineer!

(Unless you mean me having a moment of cleverness and checking the Popular Science archives. :P )

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

I did mean you! I'll have to read the article later, because I am at work right now.

[ultranos-fic.livejournal.com]

Hee. I'm occasionally allowed to be clever!

[besyd.livejournal.com]

That you are! :^D

[besyd.livejournal.com]

Wow!

he's been known to rip through 500 reps in a row

Am I allowed to find that hot? Dude, I want to see the guy in the suit. (Actually, I want to see RDJ playing in this suit.)

He constructs a suit of armor instead and, after escaping, resolves to improve both the suit and himself, transforming from an immature brainiac into a true superhero.

Okay, that made me squee! And do a happy dance. Because the transformed superhero? Is who Pepper can let herself fall in love with.

He refers to his brain as a friend he likes to go off and spend time with

He talks in five-minute-long bursts

As we walk though various labs, he'll point to a device ... launch into an excited explantion, and then stop and ask me not to mention it.

Good lord, I think I have a crush on Steve Jacobsen. Is this man married? (And that reaction is before I acknowledge that he sounds like Tony. Hmm ... this is probably why I like Tony so much.)

"When you build something like an exoskeleton," Jacobsen says, "there are about 25 subsystems, and they all have to work before you can go on to the next step. The two main objectives are strength and endurance, but it's got to do 75 different things well."

And speaking of Tony, that right there lends huge new insight. There is so much IM-related technical info in this article!

When I first watched IM, it was seeing the silver exoskeleton between Tony and the suit that made the whole thing click for me. For all the time that I read the comics, it was just a big metal suit that he was inside. But they got it in the movie. They showed the exoskeleton, and Iron Man finally gelled in my head. Everything made sense from then on. Why/how it works for him ... everything.

as I watch this 150-pound robot mirroring his every move by way of just six points of contact, and consider the amount of data flowing around the suit every second to keep those actuators moving quietly and seamlessly

This article! It's lovely and it feeds my brain! (And my IM addiction. -g-) I will come back and read over and over. Thank you so much for sharing this article!

(Between this and the con, I swear I'm going to have to move one of these days just so I can be around people who talk my language. Because in East Texas? Not so much. -sigh-)

[ultranos-fic.livejournal.com]

This article is pretty much why I love engineering. Just...all of it, because it is so cool and reading the article just makes my hands itch to play with that stuff.

I'm glad it helped feed your Iron Man addiction! (Hi, I'm a bit of a crack pusher.) Showing other people things like this, with the science and them liking it really makes me gleeful.

(Aw. Believe me, I know that feeling. I just got really, really lucky in being able to come out here.)

[besyd.livejournal.com]

You are one of my favorite crack pushers!

You can ask a number of my SG1 friends. Sam and I have a scary lot in common. -g-

You may share all of this kind of thing you want with me. We can both then wallow in the glee. :^D

[ultranos-fic.livejournal.com]

You are one of my favorite crack pushers!

I take my job very seriously.

Oh, I adore Sam and want to be like her more than is probably healthy. :D It's like I found a character to identify with and latched on or something. :P

You may share all of this kind of thing you want with me. We can both then wallow in the glee.

I shall endeavor to do more of this then!

[besyd.livejournal.com]

When we walk, we generate most of the power from the hip when we push off.

Okay. That instantly took me back to the movie. You know the scenes. First in the workshop, then in Gulmira. Yeah.

[ultranos-fic.livejournal.com]

Oh lord, yes. Just from a technical standpoint, those scenes are beautiful. And from a purely shallow point of view: oh. my. god, teh sex.

[besyd.livejournal.com]

[fans self]

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

Ooooh. That is NIFTY. Thank you.

[ultranos-fic.livejournal.com]

Isn't it just one of the coolest things ever?

Also: you're very welcome.