HOME | DD

Description
Continuing on with this train of thought...

As per the question of power and mobility, from what I know, they're already working on that problem. The mech above employs what the Batletech universe terms "myomers" - polymers which, upon the application of an electrical charge, contract, much like our own muscles do. In terms of robotics or cybernetics its much more useful than hydralics for "muscle". While hydralics are powerful, they are also bulky and heavy and of course have the diadvantage of leaking. While they may be used to approach the mech question, they would be at best a evolutionary step. As any modern day equipment operator knows they are great in the employ of construction (my personal favorite are the Hitachi EX series of excavators which optimize user interface to maximise an operator's digging rate, though I still love the good ol' Caterpillar D8K series when it comes to earth-moving. but I digress.)

I supose if we are to also solve the idea of the bipedal mech, we need it to be able to perfectly mimic the human operator, the mech's form needs to do the same. If the mech's muscles are identical to that of its operator, we simply need to be able to read and transmit his/her reactions to keep upright. Suposing as well that we keep the operator in the same position in terms of his/her center mass identical to the mech, we can then use the operator's own sense of balance and "up" to keep the mech with the right control inputs to keep it "up" as well. Augment this with some heavy duty gyroscopic stabilization and...

The usual pen and ink.

Description
Continuing on with this train of thought...

As per the question of power and mobility, from what I know, they're already working on that problem. The mech above employs what the Batletech universe terms "myomers" - polymers which, upon the application of an electrical charge, contract, much like our own muscles do. In terms of robotics or cybernetics its much more useful than hydralics for "muscle". While hydralics are powerful, they are also bulky and heavy and of course have the diadvantage of leaking. While they may be used to approach the mech question, they would be at best a evolutionary step. As any modern day equipment operator knows they are great in the employ of construction (my personal favorite are the Hitachi EX series of excavators which optimize user interface to maximise an operator's digging rate, though I still love the good ol' Caterpillar D8K series when it comes to earth-moving. but I digress.)

I supose if we are to also solve the idea of the bipedal mech, we need it to be able to perfectly mimic the human operator, the mech's form needs to do the same. If the mech's muscles are identical to that of its operator, we simply need to be able to read and transmit his/her reactions to keep upright. Suposing as well that we keep the operator in the same position in terms of his/her center mass identical to the mech, we can then use the operator's own sense of balance and "up" to keep the mech with the right control inputs to keep it "up" as well. Augment this with some heavy duty gyroscopic stabilization and...

The usual pen and ink.