I admit it. I am shamelessly clinging to the coat tails of a recently released, blockbuster movie in order to get more traffic. But seriously! There really is a news story about a real life iron man. Honest!

Rex Jameson (That’s a comic book hero name if I ever heard one!), engineer for Sarcos Inc., is sporting a new look. It’s not exactly the polished red and gold steel of his comic book counterpart, but when a scrawny geek can lift hundreds of pounds with his robotic suit, he doesn’t quibble about looks.

The robotic exoskeleton is still just a prototype limited to a 30 minute battery charge and it’s still a bit slow to respond to the driver’s movements, but it’s still wicked awesome. Jameson says, “It takes no special training, beyond learning to relax and trust the robot.” Trust the robot? Famous last words! Dude, have you read any science fiction?!

The picture of the suit in use reminds me more of Sigourney Weaver’s cargo loader in Aliens, which is likewise awesome. And of course, my mind races ahead to the (perhaps not so distant) future where soldiers tramp across giant battle fields firing lasers and missiles from their BattleMechs like I did when I used to play MechWarriors every night.

Combine this with “Fusion Man” making his first flight with his jet powered wing suit thingy and you’ve got a genuine fanboy geek-gasm. It’s a brave new world, kiddies. A brave new world.

Baby BattleMech article
Fusion man on YouTube