#1 [concept] Powered Armor
Posted: Thu Nov 15, 2012 10:07 pm
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.)
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.)