CAN ADVANCED EXOSKELETONS TURN COPS INTO ROBOCOPS?
We all love RoboCop. Exoskeletons are a perfect example where technology is getting pretty close to the movies. The armour and cyborgian capabilities of exoskeletons are pretty freaking awesome. The exoskeletons give the characters extraordinary abilities to take on the supervillains of the world. Whether it’s in Paul Verhoeven’s 1987 original or José Padilha’s recent remake, RoboCop is as badass as it gets. Other iconic exoskeletons seen in the other badass movies include the Iron Man MK III suit, the Caterpillar Power Loader in Aliens, and the suits used by the soldiers in the film ‘The Edge of Tomorrow’.
Recently, in Avengers: Endgame we saw Colonel James Rupert “Rhodey” Rhodes suit-up in a brand new armour for the final battle, having incredible firepower that was never seen before ostensibly inspired by the Iron Patriot armour he wore back in Iron Man 3. The next step in human evolution appears to be an artificial integration of man and machine crafted by our organic minds and implemented alongside our flesh-and-blood systems. Will we ever see a fully realised RoboCop like the ones that appear on the screen?
My guess is very soon. RoboCops scurrying to a crime scene may come across like a scene out of a sci-fi movie today, but the reality is not far away. Technology will help the police turn sci-fi into truth. Several companies are researching gear that will turn police officers into sci-fi characters like a RoboCop. Research labs are capitalising on technology to evolve exoskeletons with impervious graphene body armour fitted with smart belts, body cameras and Google Glass. Technological advancements in future will boost efficiency and police officer safety. Several of these technologies are already being discerned on the streets, while others are still on the horizon.
For law enforcement officers a robotic exoskeleton closer to RoboCop would be a contraption fitted to the officers knees formulated for power generation that can take the weight off their weary legs and help them chase criminals, something akin to the suit a 29-year old paraplegic man donned during the World Cup to make the successful first kick that had a body armour made of graphene and a range of wearable computers.
A RoboCop like exoskeleton would presumably be made of a novel material such as graphene. Graphene is an extraordinary material that won its researchers a Nobel Prize in 2010. Graphene armour is created from a layer of single carbon atoms organised in a honeycomb shape; the wonder fabric graphene is the world’s thinnest, most durable material which has tremendous flexibility. Graphene can resist blows that would punch through steel with the capacity to perform twice as well as the fabric presently used in bulletproof vests, making it ideal armour for the protection of the police officers.
The exoskeleton would also come fitted with smart glasses to intensify situational awareness of police officers, with the ability to compile information about a crime scene even before he arrives, which could include Google Earth images or video footage sent from mobile phones and tweets or Facebook posts. The glasses would also be able to receive text messages which are visible on the lenses. This way, the police officer would procure crucial facts without having to look away from the crime scene. This would herald new ways of capturing evidence and reduce costs and delay. For instance, the police would be able to retrieve proof digitally and upload the evidence without returning to the police station.
The smart belts in the exoskeleton would instantly be able to sense when the police officer pulls out a gun, taser, pepper spray or handcuffs from the holsters on his belt and would transmit that data to dispatch backups. The sensor would also activate the specially designed smart glasses to take images of the scene automatically.
The body-cams on the exoskeletons would also be able to document the police officers’ interaction with people and thereby prevent capricious accounts of incidents, safeguarding the public against police brutality and abuse. At the same time, the footage available would be able to fend law enforcement officers against untrue indictments of misconduct.
Now, what is an exoskeleton? When I was a student, and when I had enrolled myself for a course in Entomology, my teacher taught me that exoskeleton was a rigid crust outside biological creatures like insects and crustaceans which accomplished the purpose of bones in higher life forms. Bones in humans can be thought of as endoskeletons. Exoskeletons that humans don are a kind of a motorised prop that bolsters the characteristics of a wearer by enabling him to run as fast as an automobile or lift ten times his weight. The technology is being explored as being advantageous mostly for NASA, the military, nuclear energy and law enforcement.
Today’s exoskeletons are primarily clumsy, bulky devices, as they use large electric motors on the other hand new technology such as weightless actuators which are identical to pneumatic muscles that generate same forces to electric motors but at a fraction of weight could make them much more comfortable and more natural to use. The muscles consist of a rubber bladder enveloped by a woven sleeve. When pressurised, they expand in diameter and contract in length, pulling the joint. They can generate a force required to lift several hundreds of kilogrammes being made from lightweight materials.
Exoskeletons are now being sold in shops, and we’ll probably see more of them in the coming years. Exoskeleton Wearable Robots market, which was worth $130 million in 2018, is predicted to surpass $5.2 billion by 2025. Law enforcement personnel can perform at a higher level when wearing an exoskeleton. Exoskeletons are being developed in the U.S., China, Korea, Japan, and Europe. They are generally intended for medical, logistical and engineering purposes, due to their narrow range and short battery life. Improvements, to exoskeletons including enlarging their battery life, could make them suitable for law enforcement in crime control and crowd control.
The world over, nations and armies are building exoskeletons. The U.S. uncovered an exoskeleton dubbed TALOS in 2015 that stands for “Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit“ for use by elite commandos” in prospective missions.
United Instrument Manufacturing Corp., a defence contractor in Russia, intends to produce mind-controlled exoskeletons for Russian soldiers by 2020 and South Korea’s Hyundai has assembled an exoskeleton that is analogous to Iron Man. China Ordnance Industry Group showcased an exoskeleton, which could lift objects weighing more than 100 lb and was equipped with a battery that enabled the soldier to walk a maximum distance of 20 kilometres at a speed of 4.5 km/hour, capabilities of which were equal to an exoskeleton developed by U.S.-based Lockheed Martin.
In 2015, the Institute of Advanced Manufacturing Technology in Changzhou finished work on an exoskeleton that assisted people climbing mountains or aided them to smash through structures like walls. In 2016, FutureWise unveiled an exoskeleton called NK-01 based on a character from the Iron Man movie series. In 2012, Suidobashi Heavy Industry Japan disclosed a “mecha bot” called Kuratas, which was a 13-foot exoskeleton with 30 joints, weapons, and other capabilities, monitorable by a person from a cockpit or remotely through a phone. In 2015, the Technical Research and Development Institute, a defence research wing of the Japanese military started developing “highly mobile-powered suits” and a strategy called the “Zero Casualty Battle System,” which strived to supplant soldiers with technology “whenever possible. China could be one of the first countries to employ exoskeletons to expand its influence. For example, it could deploy military exoskeletons to patrol islands in the South China Sea.
Exoskeletons are not just suitable for loading missiles onto combat aircraft. Exoskeleton robots besides military and industrial functions, are aiding personal mobility and are helping people relearn movement after stroke by creating new muscle memory. People who have been paralysed are able to relearn lost functions. Exoskeletons are providing high-quality rehabilitation. In 2012, a paralysed woman Claire Lomas even finished the London Marathon donning one. Wearable exoskeletons are also enabling susceptible employees to reduce long term joint pain or repetitive back injuries.
Let’s say an employee working from his office, reaches for the intercom and suddenly strains his right shoulder. Due to the agonising pain, he applies for medical leave and takes an MRI, which indicates a rotator cuff injury. There are similar instances of police officers sustaining knee injuries while chasing criminals, or sustaining fractures from falls or sustaining injuries while rescuing. In the field of law enforcement average number of days, police officers skip work as a result of an injury sustained while on-duty (IOD) is substantially higher than all other occupations
What if police personnel have tools to augment their strength as well as prevent themselves from injuries? Shortly, the impact of injuries amongst police personnel could be reduced or even eliminated. As exoskeleton (ES) technology matures, it could be the answer to a chronic issue facing every police officer in the field.
A company called Sarcos has come out with a new line of motorised exoskeletons called the Guardian XO Max, that can operate for eight hours on a single charge, it weighs less than 70 kilos and takes less than 30 seconds for a person to don. The prevailing models enable users to lift to 90 kgs. There are several engineering challenges to be dealt with before we see extensive use of these systems. First of all, we may have to find a way for people to power suits without having to plug themselves in every half an hour.
The field of the robotic exoskeleton is still in its infancy, for the non-disabled, companies such as Ekso, Lockheed Martin, Sarcos / Raytheon, BAE Systems, Panasonic, Honda, Daewoo, Noonee, Revision Military, and Cyberdyne are each developing some form of exoskeleton for military/ law enforcement and industrial uses.
Exoskeletons could in future also come in handy for the criminals. Criminals could misuse wearable robotics; future burglars could be hulks of metal frozen in the street, forcing people to geo-fence themselves against approaching exoskeletons. An exoskeleton could be of immense help to a burglar wanting to carry a loot of 25kgs weight of currency notes from a cash vault. Remember the Hatton Garden heist that was pulled off not with concrete drills but with gyroscopically stabilised exoskeletons helping to rip the doors off safe-deposit boxes, and this is just the tip of an iceberg of the future of breaking. Exoskeleton enhanced burglary crews are a real emerging security concern. Home invasion, art theft, even the industrial-scale plundering of precious-metal refineries will all be made exponentially simpler with the arrival of mechanised outerwear.
Exoskeletons, on the other hand, could also deter or make crime impossible. Wearable suits could become easily monitorable both in terms of GPS tracking and onboard surveillance. Any theft or robbery would be mapped and captured on the screen. The exoskeletons could also impede acceptable activities such as drilling, cutting and chopping if performed at suspicious hours of the day or an unauthorised location. Wearable robots could also prevent fights between co-workers in a factory by programming the behaviour of the suits. The suit would be able to identify the impending punch and block the user’s ability to perform it.
Human beings, on the one hand, may have endoskeletons and wear exoskeletons to augment their capabilities. On the other, humans being spiritual entities have the capabilities of developing spiritual exoskeletons by tapping into one’s inner spiritual resources. The spiritual exoskeletons so developed could power us to cast off the weights and burdens of this world, helping us experience spiritual lightness, ecstasy and unalloyed joy.
Source from: epaper/deccanchronicle/chennai/dt:13.01.2020
Dr.K. Jayanth Murali is an IPS Officer belonging to 1991 batch. He is borne on Tamil Nadu cadre. He lives with his family in Chennai, India. He is currently serving the Government of Tamil Nadu as Additional Director General of Police, Law and Order.
