Samas PA: how is it piloted?

The Artist Formerly · Sat Nov 05, 2005 7:31 am

Body geometery, voice controls, and hand motions for the off hand. You move a certain way, the machine moves a certain way. You want to bank, you dip down one shoulder, and raise up the other, causing the armor to shift the wing alignment. Want to speed up? Lift your legs a bit. Want to slow down? lower your legs a bit. It wouldn't have to be very much movement to make it work. Voice controls activate other aspects of the machine such as the sensor system and the radio. The hand controls cover the weapons arming and such.

Thinyser · Unread post by **Thinyser** » Sat Nov 05, 2005 10:31 am

The Artist Formerly wrote:Body geometery, voice controls, and hand motions for the off hand. You move a certain way, the machine moves a certain way. You want to bank, you dip down one shoulder, and raise up the other, causing the armor to shift the wing alignment. Want to speed up? Lift your legs a bit. Want to slow down? lower your legs a bit. It wouldn't have to be very much movement to make it work. Voice controls activate other aspects of the machine such as the sensor system and the radio. The hand controls cover the weapons arming and such.

That is pretty much how I always imagined it too.

sHaka · Unread post by **sHaka** » Sat Nov 05, 2005 11:14 am

I think weapon systems would need some degree of voice recognition.

Nekira Sudacne · Sat Nov 05, 2005 3:41 pm

I think Starship Troopers (book) Gave the best discription of how Power Armor works.

Thousands of tiny actuators in the body sense your movement and enhcance it. now it's not a flat thing. if you apply X amount of force it will give y boost, but by giving a slightly more or less movement it gives much mroe or less boost, which is where Training comes in.

everything else is voice activated or little switches in the helement. hell, there is eye movement technology they could have refined to where you select commands by looking at one point of the HUD for a certain amount of time.

Dead Boy · Unread post by **Dead Boy** » Sat Nov 05, 2005 5:36 pm

It's probably a mix of overlapping controls that have a degree of redundancy to them in case of malfunction. The neural sensor (a la the Glitter Boy illustration) is probably made as a standardized bonnet/cap for pilots that allow them to use simple mental commands line "on, off, higher, lower", but that's it for the most part. To actually command the higher functions of the power armor there's most likely an optical icon interface, where the system tracks where the eye is looking on some kind of HUD. So if the pilot is looking at the jet icon and thinks "on" they, engage. The same would be true of the sensors, life support controls, and weapons systems' safeties. For additional interface options the system should also understand simple voice commands like "missiles, full volley". However I believe as an added safety measure all weapons should only fire with some kind of button/trigger depression to avoid mishaps form a stray though or miswording. As for actual piloting the thing, in addition to the bio-feedback amplifier system mention in the posts above, for flying suits of PA I can see there being pressure sensitive pads/pedals in the inside soles of the of the feet, where the pilot can control speed, breaking and steering with his feet. It'd kind of work like a T-bar in a tank, except more versatile.

sHaka · Unread post by **sHaka** » Sat Nov 05, 2005 6:18 pm

C.R.A.F.T. wrote:
Shaka wrote:I think weapon systems would need some degree of voice recognition.
Your voice changes in combat and under stressful circumstances. Even if you have a chest cold, things change.

From what I've read so far, a combination of voice, body movements, and neural net are needed.

I agree, the voice being required to a certain degree, as I said.

I think voice recognition is advanced enough to 'see' through some voice distortion -The new Eurofighter I believe is to be largely voice controlled. I imagine pulling serious G's would have an effect on the voice.

Scooter the Outlaw · Sat Nov 05, 2005 6:19 pm

Nekira Sudacne wrote:I think Starship Troopers (book) Gave the best discription of how Power Armor works.

This is how I always imagined it also. There's also probably the occasional button, switch, and other control elements here and there (inside forearm panels, and the like), but for the most part the controls are mostly directly linked to the pilot I imagine.

But the verbal commands would be the coolest... and you have to yell them really loud. "SAMAS Super Gigatron Missile Volley GO!!!!!" Pilots recieve extensive training in performance and attaining burning spirit when the chips are down...

jedi078 · Unread post by **jedi078** » Sat Nov 05, 2005 6:43 pm

Nekira Sudacne wrote:I think Starship Troopers (book) Gave the best discription of how Power Armor works.

Agree, and I do think the Power Armor featured in that book was the first PA ever in Sci-fi.

Shorty Lickens · Sat Nov 05, 2005 10:25 pm

jedi078 wrote:
Nekira Sudacne wrote:I think Starship Troopers (book) Gave the best discription of how Power Armor works.

Agree, and I do think the Power Armor featured in that book was the first PA ever in Sci-fi.

Quoted For Truth!

KLM · Unread post by **KLM** » Sun Nov 06, 2005 12:20 pm

Hi there!

Yeah, Heinlein made something everlasting.

I will also buy the neural link and the eye-following
HUD concept too...

...and say PA's utilise at least two of them.

As for real robot vehicles, they probably work
like SW - or real life - walkers - the legs are computer
controlled.

Adios
KLM

Qev · Unread post by **Qev** » Sun Nov 06, 2005 12:29 pm

It's thought controlled... but you have to think all of the commands in Russian! :lol:

Borast · Unread post by **Borast** » Sun Nov 06, 2005 2:56 pm

The SAMAS would likely have some aspect of neural control, but other than that I can agree much of it would be body posture, touch controls, (finger tip and toe/foot), and use of the space in the armour - lean forward, the suit dives, lean back, the suit climbs, etc. For safety reasons, most of the flight controls would automatically disnegage if/when the suit was grounded.

You could also program certain features to activate when the pilot clenches certain muscle combinations (similar to how RW artificial limbs are controlled). Clench your jaw while blinking a specific pattern, and your HUD activates, etc.

glitterboy2098 · Sun Nov 06, 2005 3:12 pm

i think Nekira has it down.

in addition, the MM launcher could be controlled through hand signals.

for example. curl your lower two fingers into your palm, and curl your thumb over them. extend the other two fingers. kinda like holding a gun grip, right?

well, you just engaged the aiming sight. point your two extended fingers at a target, and fold them over your thumb, like pulling a trigger with two fingers. you just fired at the target.

(apologies to Micheal Stackpole for butchering his description of how the weapons are aimed and fired from a CBT elemental battlesuit.)

Rimmerdal · Unread post by **Rimmerdal** » Mon Nov 07, 2005 8:17 pm

How about telemental control like EBSIS battloids with HUD for read outs?

Zer0 Kay · Unread post by **Zer0 Kay** » Tue Nov 08, 2005 2:28 am

C.R.A.F.T. wrote:
Shaka wrote:I think weapon systems would need some degree of voice recognition.
Your voice changes in combat and under stressful circumstances. Even if you have a chest cold, things change.

From what I've read so far, a combination of voice, body movements, and neural net are needed.

Yeah and everyone has a different voice but Dell's (and many other companys') freaking automated answering system is able to tell what your saying. I even tryied screwing it up, when it was asking for the long serial number on my laptop, by saying it fast... it still got it. So unless you want everything secure, personalized voice control then it doesn't matter how much your voice changes. Only the entry code should be personalized and secured.

Kelorin · Unread post by **Kelorin** » Tue Nov 08, 2005 11:29 am

For ground-based Powered Armor, the body geometry thing works fine for movement. But it doesn't work for flight-capable Powered Armor. In flight, you would want the suit to go somewhat rigid.

I always figured the SAMAS would have 2 modes of operation. Body geometry, voice controls, eye-motion tracking HUD, and all of that good stuff for ground operations. Then the suit goes rigid, and flight control is provided by sensors in the feet for speed, and attitude and pitch control from sensors in the left hand.

glitterboy2098 · Tue Nov 08, 2005 2:09 pm

For ground-based Powered Armor, the body geometry thing works fine for movement. But it doesn't work for flight-capable Powered Armor. In flight, you would want the suit to go somewhat rigid.

i'll go tell the hanggliders they're control technique should not work......

basically, "body geometery" means to go right, shift your weight right ("lean right"). to go left, shift it left ("lean left"). to dive, shift foreward ("lean foreward"), to climb, shift back ("lean back")

all your doing is altering the center of balance. this is how planes have controlled since Kitty Hawk.

for a SAMAS, you'd need a few more movements..like "swing your legs sharp foreward to drop speed and engage Hover mode" or "swing your legs sharp back to kick in flight mode"
in hover mode, shifting left moves you laterally left, shifting right laterally right, back moves back, ect.

eye tracking HUDs would allow control of things like changing optical modes, engaging sensors, ect. also arming the weapons for use.
the hand motion controls would control weapons targeting and firing.

voice controls i'd leave to radio options only. its simpler.