The U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command’s new Intrepid Battlefield EXoskeleton (IBEX) is a shoulder-to-foot brace that allows injured troops to stand, walk, and shoot when evacuation is impossible or delayed:
The device was designed to make an injured soldier more self-sufficient, so they can move themselves to safety instead of relying on the two-to-four additional troops it takes to carry a victim on a litter. The goal, the Army said in a release Wednesday, is to keep more soldiers firing until help arrives.
Weighing just seven pounds, the IBEX can fold into the size of a one liter bottle and be carried quickly to an injured soldier. It relieves the pressure on soft tissue, nerves and blood vessels, and is able to bear body weight.
Lower-leg injuries are often from gunshots or bomb blasts, the Army said, and soldiers suffered many such injuries during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. They can also be injured operating in rough terrain or bad weather.
Troops deployed to combat zones sustained over 22,000 non-amputated lower leg injuries between 2001 and 2018, according to the National Library of Medicine, which also reported that 68% of extremity injuries were fractures or open wounds.
Eventually, the US Army will get to the logical conclusion of this line of development, namely, the smart suit from “Descendant”, a 1987 short story by Iain Banks. After a bad crash, the protagonist is badly injured; can he walk back to base?
The suit stands up and starts walking, gripping me round the calves and waist, taking the bulk of my weight off my throbbing feet. The suit walks faster than I do. It reckons it is only twenty percent stronger than the average human. Something of a come-down for it. Even having to walk must be galling for it (if it feels galled)…
I am worried that, apart from anything else, the suit isn’t being completely honest with me. It says it thinks our chances are fifty-fifty, but I suspect it either doesn’t have any idea at all, or knows things are worse than it’s telling me… This is what comes of having a smart suit.
“How far did we come yesterday?”
“Thirty-five kilometres.”
The suit walked all of that, carrying me like a dead weight. It got up and walked, clasping me inside it so I wouldn’t bump around, and marched off…
Apparently “Descendant“ appears in his The State of the Art collection.