Lithium ion battery powered exosuits are now viable
No.12142941 ViewReplyOriginalReport
Quoted By: >>12142969 >>12142980 >>12143063
The big thing has been increasing the power density of the batteries to a level where a suit can be in motion for long enough to be tactically useful. 10 years ago, these batteries could only get to about 340 wh per kilo. Now it looks like we can get to about 500. That has a huge compounding effect, somewhat analogous to the rocket equation in reverse-as we make our batteries more energy dense, they get lighter,and as they get lighter, the power we need to waste lugging a heavy battery is reduced, which improves efficiency and extends the time of operation of the exosuit substantially. There's also been big leaps in more power-efficient actuators and in computing power and efficiency that make reading and responding to operator movement much easier than 10 years ago. This also applies to robots, which will see big jumps in their operating time and utility in the next decade.
