Bringing Iron Man to life: Exoskeletons, armour and jet packs

Arc reactor or hydrogen peroxide?

Kakalios estimates that Stark himself tips the scales at around 13 stone (81kg), which means that "his boot-thrusters would need to supply a constant downward force of over 330lb (equal to a mass of 150kg)" just for a fully suited-up Iron Man to do that enchanting wobbly hover thing he does. Duelling with supersonic fighter planes would require rather more than that.

“The only reason I didn’t give this movie a superhero physics A-grade was that... the amount of energy you would have to supply to continuously provide a downward thrust in order to maintain an upward force to counterbalance gravity is enormous,” Kakalios says.

So what about engines and power? In the film, Stark’s Arc Reactor is the engine's - and the weapons' - power source. Other engine options exist, but are limited. We have jet packs that work today but you don’t get to travel very far. One of today’s jet pack makers is Jet Pack International, which builds a hydrogen-peroxide-fuelled device capable of speeds of up to 80mph (128kmph). Problem is, it has a flight time of just 20 to 30 seconds and you'll only cover about a quarter of a mile (402m).

Next, there’s the control system. In the film, if Stark wants to fire his repulsor rays or transfer more power to the boot-jet thrusters, you never see him press a button or even give a voice commands. In the comics it’s explained away by saying that he has a cybernetic helmet that picks up his brainwaves and sends the signals to the suit – amazingly enough, this part is something that can be replicated in reality.

A number of scientists are working on cybernetic helmets.

One is Bin He of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Minnesota. He has built a helmet that, like Iron Man’s, enables the wearer to control a computer just by thinking. It works on the principle that the electrical currents generated the brain create electric and magnetic fields, which can be detected by external devices.

“It’s a device that detects the very minute electromagnetic waves that are generated when you think. It amplifies them, interprets them, and can send signals to a computer so that you could move a mouse cursor on a computer screen by just thinking,” says Kakalios.

The basic idea of electroencephalogram (EEG) has been around since 1924, but recent developments in signal processing and analysis have enabled scientists to extract much more detailed information about the personal computer we’re all carrying in our heads.

“The first goal of this research is to treat paralysis or to develop improved next-generation prosthetic devices, but if you asked me as a kid in the '60s which aspect of Iron Man would be the closest to reality in the 21th century I would have said the jet boots, or maybe the repulsor rays. I don’t think I would have said a mind-reading helmet,” Kakalios says.

The device requires a good deal of "training", in the same way that we have to teach voice recognition software how to handle our distinctive intonation. Nevertheless it points the way to a hands-free alternative to the mouse and keyboard. Perhaps one day we’ll all be thinking emails directly to one another - hopefully with hilarious results.

Time for the X1?

NASA, the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC) and engineers from Oceaneering Space Systems in Houston are collaborating on a robotic exoskeleton called X1.

The 57lb (26kg) device is wearable robot that can either aid or inhibit movement in leg joints. In the inhibit mode, the robotic device would be used as an in-space exercise machine to supply resistance against leg movement. The same technology could be used in reverse on the ground, potentially putting victims of paralysis back on their feet.

There is a huge overlap between the science community and the science fiction, not just because fans of one work in the other. Robert H Goddard, the man who built the first liquid-fuelled rocket, began his love affair with space travel after reading H G Wells’ War of the Worlds.

And while they may not be able to turn us green, it’ll be interesting to see how much further the world’s scientists can go in replicating super-hero fiction using scienctific fact. ®