(The previous chapter was 260, I called the wrong one again)

The next morning, Ye Zhou followed Chen Hao to a military base near Rongcheng. There, Ye Zhou finally saw the domestic mechanical exoskeleton he had been curious about.

According to Chen Hao's plan to communicate with the military in advance, the visit was divided into two parts. The first part was a professional soldier who carried the exoskeleton for a tactical action demonstration, and the second part was to Ye Zhou to try it out in person.

Various types of equipment have been arranged on the shooting range, including combat vehicles, artificial obstacles, shells, dummies and wounded people, etc., all of which will be used as props to show the performance of mechanical exoskeletons later.

The soldiers participating in the demonstration had already assembled. Ye Zhou and Chen Hao stood aside, accompanied by several military cadres. They were briefly introducing the content of the subsequent demonstration to Ye Zhou before the demonstration began.

"Mr. Ye, there are several parts of the subsequent demonstration. We divided it according to the functions of the troops. Now it is mainly the major categories of infantry, artillery, logistics, and medical soldiers. The most useful part is the artillery. Other troops are not particularly perfect in the use of mechanical exoskeletons for the time being. Some tactical actions cannot be adapted, especially high-intensity tactical actions, such as climbing, jumping, etc., which have relatively great limitations."

Ye Zhou nodded. He had expected such a situation, so he could not be disappointed.

Today's mechanical exoskeletons generally use two systems. The first system can be simply called a weight-bearing system, that is, a speed reduction system. The principle is to use a hybrid transmission chain technology of a gear reducer and a synchronous wheel speed bump, combined with real-time force feedback, to disassemble the force at a single position through a server dispersed in different positions of the mechanical bones, and transmit it to other parts of the body, or directly to the soles of the feet.

Another system is a motion system, which is based on series elastic driving. After the joint force feedback is calculated by the force impedance control system, it drives a high-torque DC motor to the elastic device inside the machine - generally speaking, it is to torsionally store energy for the spring, and then uses the spring energy to achieve accelerated movement of the joint. The final result is to save labor and accelerate during ordinary movement.

Simply put, the load-bearing system allows the user to carry heavier objects, while the motion system allows the user to jump higher and run faster.

But the problem is that the complexity of the motor system is much more complex than that of the weight-bearing system, especially at the speed of restoring energy. Even the direct drive with the highest power density and which exceeds the muscle density will be slightly slower than the muscle in response speed, so this leads to the user of the exoskeleton feeling a slight hysteresis when performing fast movements.

If you want to describe this feeling of lag, the best example is the three-person one-board activity that most people have played at the Children's Day activities in school. Everyone's feet are fixed on the longboard at the same time. Before the movements reach synchronization, the stagnation felt by the person who started the first is the stagnation of the mechanical exoskeleton now.

However, theoretically speaking, this delay can also be overcome through training - this involves the two sets of muscle memory issues mentioned earlier.

Just as his thoughts were drifting away, the drill on the shooting range not far away had already begun. Ye Zhou retracted his thoughts and began to watch the drill seriously.

The first person to appear was the artillery. A soldier with a small figure walked to the ammunition box, firmly grasped the edge of the ammunition box with his hands, and then used a little force. The ammunition box with a length of more than one meter was easily lifted.

"This is the ammunition box of the D30 122mm howitzer, which is equipped with 3 rounds and the bullet weighs 22 kilograms, which means that it lifts objects close to 70 kilograms at one time without any pressure. And Mr. Ye, you see, unlike the previous generation of mechanical exoskeletons, this exoskeleton has greatly improved its flexibility and work error rate."

"The main reason is that the speed of human-computer interaction has become faster---because we have replaced a stronger motor."

Ye Zhou nodded. He could see the movements of the artillery on the shooting range. As the expert around him said, compared to the clumsy, slow exoskeleton device he had seen on the news, what he saw this time was obviously much stronger.

At least, during the process of performing his entire set of actions, no link was particularly mechanical, and even gave Ye Zhou a feeling of flowing water as a whole.

The shells entered the chamber, but the soldiers did not fire on the spot, but continued to demonstrate other operations such as the following launches, manpower to traction artillery, and rapid transfer of artillery in an emergency.

From these operations, Ye Zhou could clearly feel that the power of a single soldier was greatly amplified, and some movements that could not have been completed became easy in their hands.

Subsequently, the logistics and medical soldiers were similar. However, the quick horizontal stretcher on the medical soldiers' back made Ye Zhou's eyes lit up. The thing stretched out like the courier behind the courier's back in the death strand. It automatically fixed the body of the injured through the locking mechanism of each part, freeing up both hands for the medical soldiers, and the outer wall also assumed part of the protective effect.

However, apart from this, Ye Zhou did not see any new highlights.

After the demonstration of these three types of troops was completed, the demonstration of the infantry combatant that Ye Zhou had been waiting for for a long time finally began. The soldiers on the shooting range were carrying modified exoskeletons, and behind them were a single-soldier recoil-free cannon of unknown model, a forward-garde-12 individual air defense missile, a 95 light machine gun, an OTS-11 comprehensive system rifle, and various types of ammunition and other explosive equipment were hung on their chests. The whole one was a fire monster!

The slightly bloated soldier ran between various shooting positions on the shooting range, and tried the weapons on his body one by one. The targets set up in the distance were blown to pieces.

Seeing this scene, Ye Zhou couldn't help but sigh.

I haven't paid attention to the development of the army in recent years, and I didn't expect that their firepower phobia has developed to this level...

Four types of weapons are targeted at medium-sized armored ground targets, helicopters, cluster infantry, and conventional infantry. Each weapon can be used with crucial left and right.

Especially the recoilless cannon that looks quite light at first sight, which looks a bit like Gustav. It is really hard to imagine how a rabbit would equip such things to the individual level.

After all the demonstrations were over, Ye Zhou also basically figured out the defects of the current exoskeleton.

As he thought, delay is still the biggest problem. When infantry is fully loaded, their weight is over 60 kilograms, and the weight-bearing system and the motion system must work simultaneously, which brings huge synergy pressure.

Therefore, when this soldier performs some fine movements such as lying down, crawling, climbing, and jumping, he often appears extremely bulky.

After frowning for a while, Ye Zhou asked:

"Why do you have to stuff so many weapons into a soldier?"

The commander beside him stood there in a daze.

Why?

This seemed to be a question that touched the soul. He had many reasons, but he couldn't say it for a while.

After pondering for a few seconds, he spoke:

"Mr. Ye, our consideration is like this. Judging from the development direction of modern warfare, the combat distance has been constantly stretching. From the queuing of shooting in the 17th century to the 300 to 500 meters of battle in the 19th century, it has been developed to the present day that the combat range of light infantry has developed toward the range of sight."

"So, based on this trend and the increase in mechanization, we generally believe that pursuing the high maneuverability and concealment of individual combat units of infantry is no longer of great significance. The most important thing is the ability to deliver firepower in individual soldiers."

"We must make a soldier able to fight both tanks and planes, forming a fully functional combat unit."

"To form such a combat unit, it is very important to have a soldier carry a number of weapons... You also see, and the final result is like this."

“Is it useful?”

Ye Zhou asked curiously.

"From the exercises we conducted some time ago, to be honest, it is very useful. After a light infantry platoon reaches sufficient firepower advantage and with reasonable command, it can pose a major threat to the traditional mechanized infantry company. We even had a case where a squad destroyed four tanks and two helicopters of the opponent."

"So exaggerated?"

Ye Zhou widened his eyes. He did not know the military, but also knew the importance of firepower to light infantry combat, but he did not expect that the result of firepower advantage would be exaggerated to this extent.

The commander nodded and replied:

"It's very exaggerating -- of course, the cost of individual soldiers is also very high. Basically, two or three soldiers are equivalent to a utility vehicle. However, we don't care so much about the cost now, because no matter how expensive the weapons and equipment are, they can be mass-produced. But if the personnel are lost, there is no way to supplement it."

"That's indeed...Okay, I'm going to try your exoskeleton first."

"It's ready for you."

While speaking, the commander took Ye Zhou to the edge of the shooting range. In order to allow him to fully experience the whole process, he did not arrange other personnel to assist, but asked Ye Zhou to put on the mechanical exoskeleton himself.

Ye Zhou did not encounter any difficulties in this process. He found that the exoskeleton did much better in human factors than he thought. The freedom of each joint has reached an extremely fine level, and the most difficult to control ankles and wrists also have sufficient freedom.

This makes the entire wear process extremely smooth. Coupled with the control of the intelligent system, all parts can be automatically locked and adapted after confirmation. The total time it takes no more than 5 minutes from the start of wear to the end of preparation.

The weapon mounting is also extremely humane. The movable bracket behind you is controlled by the operating table on the inside of your arm. Press the corresponding mechanical button and the hanger behind you will automatically unfold and be sent to a position that can be removed.

Ye Zhou tried to operate it a few times, started running back and forth on the shooting range, and even tried to do a few jumps. Then he found that it was not that easy to adapt to this set of operation logic.

For example, according to intuitive operation, a jump only requires bent legs and unfolding, but under heavy load, this exoskeleton also has an additional energy storage process, which leads to a fatal problem:

He couldn't jump while running.

This alone has seriously limited the diversity of tactical actions.

After using it for a while, Ye Zhou basically summarized the problems existing in this mecha.

The action delay is long, the energy storage process is long, and the flexibility is still insufficient.

Therefore, this is the real reason why "you can't walk after removing the exoskeleton", rather than the "difference in action force feedback" that Chen Hao judged before.

Ye Zhou walked back to the edge of the shooting range, and Chen Hao, who was standing against each other while removing the exoskeleton, said:

"I verified a famous saying of a great man today: Without investigation, there is no right to speak."

"What does it mean?"

"You will know that you come over and wear it for a while. The fundamental reason for this exoskeleton is not the power supply system, but the power feedback system."

"From force feedback to assist, we are currently using simple physical transmission, just like playing three people and one board. The people behind must first feel the force of your lifting legs before they can lift their legs simultaneously."

"The longer the delay in this process, the greater the difference between the operation logic and the motion logic under normal conditions. The final result is that if you remove the armor, you will not be able to walk."

Hearing Ye Zhou's words, the commander beside him nodded repeatedly.

"That's right! That's the problem! Our soldiers are mainly feedbacking about this issue."

His face showed a look of surprise. Although he didn't know what the young man named Ye Zhou came today was, judging from the other party's performance, it is likely that he was a big shot in the exoskeleton field who was sent to solve the problem.

Thinking of this, he asked immediately:

"Mr. Ye, is there a way to solve this problem?"

Ye Zhou pondered for a moment and replied:

"I'm really not a professional person, so I can't give too many suggestions on the specific technical details, but I think we can start from two directions."

"The first is to take the artificial intelligence route, record the user's movement habits through the central processor, and make a model of the movement status of a single muscle and muscle group. Through continuous data collection and machine learning, the user's next move is finally predicted by artificial intelligence based on the pre-muscle group movement."

"This logic is equivalent to what is said in martial arts. Don't look at the hands when you see someone's moves, but look at the shoulders. The truth is the same."

"However, the technical level required by this kind of artificial intelligence is too high, and I guess it will be difficult to achieve in the short term."

"So, I have an idea. Although it looks very fantastic, it has basically implemented the application and is said to be using a pretty good idea."

"you say!"

The commander stared at Ye Zhou tightly, as if he was afraid that he would run away.

Ye Zhou coughed and said:
Chapter completed!