Well, kind of. This is one of [Jason Kerestes’] latest projects as a masters engineering student at the Arizona State University — A jet pack designed to increase your running speed by quite literally giving you a boost.
It’s one of the proposed solutions to the 4MM (4 Minute Mile) project, which is part of the ASU Program called iProjects, which brings students and industry together to solve problems. The 4MM project is trying to find a way to make any soldier able to run the 4 minute mile — quite ambitious, but DARPA is actually working on it with [Jason]!
The whole rig only weighs 13lbs and features two electric turbines which provide the thrust. They originally tested the concept by seeing if you could pull a person with an electric golf cart around a track to make them run faster — turns out, you can. Further more scientific testing led them to find that there is a specific thrust to body-weight ratio that works best, with the direction of thrust about 25 degrees below horizontal.
Through clinical testing they found that the jet pack is able to increase running speeds while maintaining a lower heart rate — and that’s with the extra weight of the jet pack. A 200m dash was completed in 25.27 seconds with the jet pack, and 29.82 without.
As for the 4 minute mile? One of their test subjects can run it in 5 minutes 20 seconds, or 5 minutes 2 seconds with the jet pack — unfortunately they aren’t quite there yet.
Will be sold to public in about a year as a replacement for mobility scooters.
Who else wants to see Usain Bolt run the 100m with that on his back? :)
Reminds me of this, which really want to replicate: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7H5oYHs7EJw
So basically just replace the crappy electric turbines (lol) with some proper jet or rocket assistance, and you’ve got Titanfall’s pilot jet packs?
Am I the only one who is disturbed by DARPA’s projects to make trained killers even more effective? Running faster is cool, but not if it’s to be able to kill more people more rapidly…
Probably not, but this does not disturb met rather as much as it amazes me in all it’s infantile stupidity.
If this was even only at 5% advanced LVL army tech the US has going for it, then I’m not at all surprised why a bunch of dessert dwelling reactionary idiots are so hard to fight by the US forces.
I guess most of the senior political and army staff simply read to much cultureless comic books.
Not sure there are very many who wouldn’t be reactionary if their country was occupied by the troops of the country aided the dictator of their country. They would be idiots if they weren’t reactionary
Do not assume that just because a lot of people tend to die as a result of war that the aim of war is to merely kill people. It is far more complicated than that. If all the USA wanted to do was kill all of our enemies we could do that in about 20 minutes. We’d much rather they just saw things our way though. Sometimes changing people’s minds is a difficult task.
Especially when, like you, you’re just another sheep.
Yeah but if you really managed to get rid of all your enemies you’d then have to disband the military and then you lot wouldn’t get to play with your toys anymore and deal with your hyperthyroidism somehow else.
something that helps keep the killing between trained killers and leaving civilians out of the loop should always be promoted.
Now the ultimate goal is something that keeps the politicians and policymakers that lead to conflicts in the loop as well instead of insulated by trained killers.
disclosure: I have a lot of those “trained killers” in my family tree. Amazing how well they become fathers, grandfathers, uncles, brothers, cousins, when the media is done demonizing them.
I wonder if you done into a gopher hole you can find out what happens when the thrust stops when you are 20 feet underground? Would the gophers feed you? ;)
I guess that makes sense, when you’re running your feet are off the ground momentarily, so that’s probably what’s lending most of the boost.
I wonder if you could make one with those cheaper ducted fans you can buy for RC.
Those look a lot like hobby ducted fans. Which makes me wonder if the same limitations apply. I hear they’re not very efficient unless in fast-moving air, and I wonder if running speed is enough. Mounting them directly behind the back in disrupted air flow, rather than to the sides, doesn’t make much efficiency sense either. Although efficiency isn’t necessarily the top concern if it will only be used for wartime.
Considering they’re using a Turnigy 9x as a transmitter radio I’d say you could order this whole project off hobbyking.
When I read the title of this post I instantly had visions of a guy wearing roller skates with two Acme branded oversized red pyrotechnic rocks strapped his back…
Super genius.
Wiley coyote has already done that research.
Wonder how fast he’d be without the stupid helmet
The military needs to work on power assisted exoskeleton battle armor. Then eventually they can upgrade the suits to being completely unmanned.
They are already doing research into that and there are already working prototypes of exoskeletons. Scary as fuck you know – reminds me of the power armour from Fallout
“seeing if you could pull a person with an electric golf cart around a track to make them run faster”
If you want to live in a butcher shop, I’m gonna treat you like a piece of meat.
Jerry: What if I can’t keep up?
Izzy: You lie, you dry. Fire it up, son.
Is it me or is it hilarious that he saved 18s on a run but they made him wear a helmet as if there were enough thrust to cause an injury ?
As I always said before, the first step to any project is to reduce your liability at all cost, and then there is that thing about saftey
Enough thrust to cause injury? I think no, but additional thrust which alters your balance during running? That MIGHT cause you to lose your step and just fall over.
Current ASU student/employee here.
I have to print out MSDS sheets for dry erase markers.
Safety is taken somewhat seriously (or not) here.
How much thrust?
HHHAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAAAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAA
I mean this is actually a pretty cool project to work on but
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
He sure soldered the fuck out of that iron.
Step 1: tin tip, step 2: wave iron over pcb with all components already fitted and soldered. Electronics!
omg i was wondering if anyone else noticed he wasnt soldering anything in the video
You’re not the only one :3
Skateboard test? Lets see the thrust potential for a non-running person by using a skateboard.
Pitiful little boost. Some guy back in the late 1970’s or early 1980’s made a backpack out of 2×4 wood, a small gas engine, some bicycle sprockets and metal rods. The engine derove a crank which moved two levers behind his thighs. Padded straps held the levers to his thighs.
Tops speed was around 25 MPH if I recall. I want to say it was in The Mother Earth News, might have been in Mechanix Illustrated or Popular Mechanics.
Finding stuff that was in Mechanix Illustrated is difficult because it changed to Home Mechanix in 1984 (after an ever increasing amount of home repair and woodworking articles but ironically HM’s first cover article was about customizing Chrysler’s new minivan), renamed for the last time as Today’s Homeowner in 1996 then ceased publication in 2001.
Prior to Mechanix Illustrated it had been (starting in 1928) Modern Mechanics and Inventions, Modern Mechanix and Inventions, Modern Mechanix.
i know a jet looks cool but in reality, they could of gotten much better performance from a 2 stroke strapped on
So they’re not going to use the electric golf cart assist in the field? Pity.
I’m have to be pretty certain if a soldier’s legs are the primary locomotion no attachment isn’t going to make a soldier faster than a speeding bullet.
I have seen too many reactionary comments, then here comes my personal answer: Most of the tech we use everyday was at some point created to support troops during war, so why worry about “the ability of killing more people in less time” when what we are seeing is some piece of gear that can actually help us [CIVILIANS] at some point in the future?
Let the Army fight their own wars, gentleman!
If you do a cost benefit analysis, I think you’ll find that we can probably find cheaper and more effective ways to innovate than pumping it through the military-industrial complex. Or not. Nothing like fear to get cattle to line up and move.
Is it just me, or does the threadmill (as shown in the video) make absolutely zero sense?
perhaps it is for testing how much SLOWER he runs because of the extra weigth
Hey! you! This Nick name is mine. Choose another one.
Sounds like over-speed sprint training to me.
Really losing faith in HAD anymore.
I don’t understand why they have the thrusters at more of a horizontal angle. I would think that the purpose of this would be to keep the person in the air for a longer period of time between steps therefore not using as much energy by the person and also allowing for larger strides to be made. I would think that the would put the thrusters more towards a -45 degree angle to provide more efficient thrust, especially since the thrust at a horizontal angle has no reference to push off. Maybe the should look into aeronautics, like maybe the space shuttle…
in the air = coasting = slower, I would think it should provide thrust to help them push off faster, not keep them in the air longer?
…or you could just jump on a bike?
Most pointless thing I’ve seen in a while
From Wikipedia: A turbine, from the Greek τύρβη, tyrbē, (“turbulence”),[1][2] is a rotary mechanical device that extracts energy from a fluid flow and converts it into useful work. A turbine is a turbomachine with at least one moving part called a rotor assembly, which is a shaft or drum with blades attached. Moving fluid acts on the blades so that they move and impart rotational energy to the rotor.
This is the second place I’ve seen someone call a pump or fan a turbine in the last week. I’ve worked in turbomachines for 10 years, and this is really annoying to me.
I love how the comments for these sorts of projects immediately get filled with what sounds like a bunch of jealous teenagers trying to act tough and like they know how to better do what is being presented in the project.
These folks working on this 4MM project are obviously not just the average hackaday hobby “hacker”, or a bunch of makerspace ninnies getting themselves wet over yet another pointless 3D printer.
If any of you complaining about this project can do it any better than what has been presented in this write-up, by all means, SHOW US, instead of just coming here and whining about how pointless this idea is, or how it’s being wrongly implemented or whatever your personal butthurt derived beef is.
Seriously, I haven’t lost faith in HAD, but these comments just make me want to distance myself further from the whole “hacking” scene, as if I really needed any further encouragement to do so.
I stopped reading after the word soldier. you?
“or a bunch of makerspace ninnies”
Obviously you’ve never worked on a military project EVER.
This is just a remake of the original project grasshopper jump belt. In the late 50s they had a similar project that was supposed to allow you to run up to 35 mph. http://www.theverge.com/2011/11/3/2504531/jetpack-history-future-passed
*Having someone use it on a treadmill in the video.*
Not cool guys.
If they use it in the army now…
Enemy: “What do i hear? Is it a bird, Is it a plane, no, it’s a US soldier” :P