Human Exoskeletons: Full Metal Jacket
人类外骨骼：全金属外壳（节选）
From the battlefield via the factory floor to the orthopaedic clinic, artificial bones and muscles worn outside the body are providing help and protection
从战场，车间，到骨科诊所，穿戴式人造骨骼及肌肉正为人们带来帮助与保护
Soldiers kitted up in expectation of their first taste of combat often reflect on how much of their bodies a bulletproof jacket and helmet do not cover. About 81%, it turns out. More armour than this would be impractically heavy. Indeed, many soldiers already carry at least 50kg of kit and supplies, which is more than double what America’s Army Science Board advises as the limit if damage to a soldier’s skeleton and musculature is to be avoided.
士兵全副武装期待初尝战场滋味时，总会想一想自己身上有多少地方尚未被防弹衣和头盔覆盖。事实上，这样的面积约为81%。添加更多的护甲将会过于沉重而不可行。实际上许多士兵已背负至少50公斤的装备和给养，是美国陆军科学委员会(America’s Army Science Board)建议上限的两倍还多，这一限制是为了避免损伤士兵的骨骼和肌肉。
The answer, many suggest, is a second, external skeleton, complete with artificial muscles, that would let its wearer carry far more weight without strain. Such exoskeletons, moreover, are no longer the stuff of science fiction. Interest in their uses, both on and off the battlefield, is growing.
许多人建议，解决的方法是打造配有人造肌肉的另一套外部骨架，能让佩戴者毫不费力地背负起重得多的装备。而这样的外骨骼已不再是科幻小说的素材，人们在战场内外使用它们的兴趣日渐浓厚。
One of the most advanced is the Kinetic Operations Suit (KOS) made by Revision Military, a firm in Vermont. For a soldier this triples his armour-protection while adding little burden to his movement. An artificial articulated spine transfers most of the weight of the suit’s helmet (which fully encases the wearer’s head) to armour on his shoulders. The weight of the armour protecting his torso is similarly transferred to his hips and legs through another section of artificial spine. All this reduces strain on his neck and lower back, the natural skeleton’s weakest links. His legs must still bear the extra weight, however. To assist with this, the KOS uses titanium-aluminium shafts which are strapped, along with armour, to his lower limbs. Electric motors, taking their cue from accelerometers and other sensors embedded in the suit, move these shafts in step with the way the soldier moves his legs.
其中一款最先进的产品是由佛蒙特州的Revision Military公司制造的“动力作业套装”( Kinetic Operations Suit ，简称KOS)。该产品令士兵得到三倍的盔甲保护而不会对其行动增添多少负担。人造关节脊柱把装备头盔(完全覆盖穿戴者的头部)的大部分重量转移到肩膀的护甲上。同样，保护躯干的护甲也通过人造脊柱的另一部分把重量转移到臀部和腿部。所有这些减轻了对颈部和下背部的压力，这两处是自然骨骼中最薄弱的环节。但士兵的腿部仍须承受额外的重量。为帮助解决这一问题，KOS将钛铝合金传动装置绑到士兵的下肢上，配合盔甲使用。电动马达接收到加速度计等内置传感器的指示后，带动这些传动装置与士兵的双腿同步移动。
According to Brian Dowling, a former special-forces soldier in the American army who works for Revision Military, the system is both nimble enough and robust， enough to help its wearer run, fully laden, across uneven terrain. The armies of several countries, America’s included, are now evaluating such claims.
据如今在Revision Military公司工作的美军前特种部队士兵布莱恩·道林(Brian Dowling)所说，该系统够轻便也够结实，可帮助穿戴者在全副武装之下奔跑于崎岖地形之上。包括美国在内的多国军方正在评估这样的宣传。
A second military exoskeleton, more ambitious even than KOS, is being developed by the special forces themselves. This project’s contractors include many of the most famous names of America’s defence establishment, such as General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon. Intriguingly, they also include Legacy Effects, the firm that designed the exoskeletons which feature in the “Iron Man” science-fiction films. The device these firms have come up with is called the Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit, a name crafted to yield the acronym TALOS, the ancient Greek name of a mythical animated bronze statue.
比KOS更具野心的另一款军用外骨骼正由特种部队自行开发。该项目的承包商包括美国很多名头最响的防务公司，如通用动力(General Dynamics)、洛克希德马丁(Lockheed Martin)和雷神(Raytheon)。有趣的是，其中还包括了好莱坞特效公司Legacy Effects，它为《钢铁侠》系列科幻电影设计了其中引人注目的外骨骼。这些公司联手构思的产品名为“战术突击轻型作业套装”(Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit)，这个名字构思精巧，其缩写TALOS正是古希腊神话中青铜巨人塔罗斯的名字。
TALOS will weigh twice as much as the soldier inside it. The components contributing to this weight will, however, make it bullet- and shrapnel-proof. They will also offer its wearer a cooling system; a set of sensors that monitor his physiology; and superhuman strength. The result, according to General Joseph Votel, head of the Special Operations Command, will be “peerless tactical capability”.
TALOS的重量将是穿戴它的士兵体重的两倍。部件虽重，却可令整套装备防御子弹和弹片。它还为穿戴者提供降温系统、一组监控其生理指标的传感器，以及超人般的力量。据美国特种作战司令部司令约瑟夫·沃特尔(Joseph Votel)将军所说，结果将是“举世无双的战术能力”。
If, of course, it works. That is not certain. To start with, the actuators that operate TALOS will need to become more agile. Replicating the movements of the shoulder joint, the human body’s most mobile, remains particularly difficult. The device will also need far more power than portable batteries can provide. General Atomics, another of the military-industrial complex’s usual suspects, has proposed designing a small internal-combustion engine to run the whole thing. But such engines are noisy, which could alert the enemy. Also, soldiers might, quite reasonably, be reluctant to wear a tank of petrol into battle.
当然，前提是它要能发挥效用，而这还不确定。首先，TALOS的致动器需要变得更灵活。要复制人体最灵活的肩关节的动作仍旧特别困难。另外，该装置耗电量大，便携电池远远不能满足。常被视为军事工业集团一员的通用原子(General Atomics)提议设计一款小型内燃机来驱动整套装备。但这类发动机噪音大，容易暴露目标。此外，士兵们也不愿“戴”着一箱汽油上战场，这很好理解。
Power down
无动力装置
A prototype of TALOS should be available by 2018, though a battle-ready version is at least a decade away. And even Revision Military’s more modest system will probably not be fit for combat for several years. In the meantime, though, the world’s armed forces are looking at the idea of unpowered exoskeletons.
TALOS的原型机应该可在2018年前推出，但能投入作战的版本至少要等上十年。就连Revision Military那套较简易的装备也未必能在几年内用于作战。不过，与此同时，各国军队正在研究无动力外骨骼的构想。
Australia’s Department of Defence, to take one example, has designed a skeleton that diverts much of the weight of a backpack, or of armour designed to protect the torso, directly to its wearer’s boots. Two steel cables – encased in flexible tubes which are, in turn, held in place by loops in the wearer’s trousers – run directly from the backpack or armour to the soles of the boots. It is these cables that transmit the load. The tubes stop them buckling, letting them support their burden while retaining sufficient flexibility for the wearer to walk or run unhindered. The system is a prototype. But two other unpowered exoskeletons, one developed by Lockheed Martin and the other by BAE Systems, a British defence giant, are already in use – not for combat, but for industry.
例如澳洲国防部设计的一款外骨架，可将背包或保护躯干的防具的大部分重量直接转移到穿戴者的靴子上。两条钢索直接把背包或护甲和靴底连接起来，钢索外面包裹挠性管，穿过裤子上的环圈加以固定。正是这些钢索起到了传输负载的作用。外裹软管可防止钢索弯曲，使其在承受重负的同时保持足够的灵活性，让佩戴者可以自如行走或奔跑。该系统仍处于原型阶段。但另外两款分别由洛克希德马丁公司和英国防务巨头BAE系统公司(BAE Systems)开发的无动力外骨骼已投入使用——用于工业生产而非军事用途。
A worker holding a rivet gun or other similarly heavy tool may have to set it down to shake out his arms and recover his strength so often that he is resting nearly half the time he is on a job. To help, Lockheed Martin has designed FORTIS, a 17.5kg unpowered exoskeleton now being tried out by the American navy and also by nearly a dozen manufacturing companies. FORTIS’s articulated aluminium frame supports a gimballed arm. One end of this arm, in front of the worker, is attached to the tool being used. The other end, behind him, carries an appropriate counterweight. Whether he is standing or kneeling to do the job in question, the combined weight of both tool and counterweight is transferred to the ground through the exoskeleton rather than through his bones. The tool itself thus seems weightless, and the worker does not so much wield as guide it. And, because that tool is attached to the exoskeleton, rather than being carried in the worker’s hands, this arrangement also prevents injuries caused by dropped tools.
工人拿着铆钉枪或其他类似的重型工具作业时，往往需要经常放下工具，甩甩手臂恢复力量，算起来，可能近一半的工作时间要用于休息。为解决这一问题，洛克希德马丁公司设计出一款重17.5公斤的无动力外骨骼，名为FORTIS。美国海军及十多家制造企业正在试用该系统。 FORTIS的铰接式铝制框架撑起一个万向臂。工人身前的万向臂一端与其使用的工具相连接。工人身后的另一端附有相应的配重。无论工人是以站姿还是跪姿操作，工具及配重的总重量会通过外骨骼而非其自身骨骼被转移到地面上。工具本身因此显得毫无重量，工人无须费力举起工具，只要引导工具进行操作。而且，由于工具是与外骨骼相连，而非由工人手持，也可防止工具掉落造成损伤。
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