5 real-life Star Wars technologies invented by DoD scientists

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1 My Account My Applications Log Out DEC 12, 2017 BY TROY CARTER 5 real-life Star Wars technologies invented by DoD scientists Created in defense laboratories, these real life Star Wars technologies are also available to businesses for product development Storm Troopers via Pixabay The latest film in the Star Wars saga, The Last Jedi, opens this weekend. And to help fans understand how close the scientists and engineers working inside defense laboratories have brought us to that starry future we ve compiled this list of five real life star wars technologies from our database.

2 BB-8 and R2-D2 (via Pixabay) 1. Rolling Robots R2-D2, an astromech droid, saved the rebellion s hopes of disabling the Death Star by escaping with its blueprints and eventually carrying them to Luke Skywalker. In The Force Awakens Star Wars fans met another astromech welding droid named BB-8, whose head sits atop a rolling ball. Well, if droids could think, there d be none of us here, would there? ObiWan Kenobi But did you know that BB-8 s mobility is similar to an actual, real-life Navy invention called the High-velocity Spherical Microbot. Inside, the microbot uses two servomotors that are oriented orthogonal to each other. They power rubberized traction balls that touch the interior surface of the housing causing the ball to roll. The Navy inventors also included a mechanical plunger that strikes the inside of the housing, which lets the microbot hop over obstacles while carrying a variety of sensors. TechLink s Joan Wu-Singel has the details for businesses interested in commercializing the Navy s microbot. Luke Skywalker s hand as seen in the trailer for The Last Jedi. (via YouTube) 2. Advanced Prosthetic Ankle The iconic fight scene in The Empire Strikes Back, a desperate duel that ends on a narrow gantry inside Cloud City s reactor chamber, Darth Vader cuts off Luke Skywalker s right hand with his red lightsaber. No. I am your father. Darth Vader After escaping the sith lord s call to join his father on the dark side, Skywalker receives a prosthetic hand. And in the trailer for The Last Jedi, we catch a glimpse of the mechanical replacement as he accepts a lightsaber from Rey. Well, we re making some pretty advanced prosthetics here on Earth. On Dec. 22, 2016, Carter Sigmon, Brian Zalewski, and Darwin Clark, of the Naval Medical Research Center, filed for a patent on a user adjustable prosthetic

3 ankle. It allows a user to quickly and easily modify the pitch angle of the foot, which is key for using footwear of differing heel heights without diminishing stability or safety during swordplay. This Star Wars technology is not only real life, but is available for prosthetic manufacturers to license and commercialize. Contact TechLink s Quinton King for more information. Baze Malbus as seen at the Battle of Scarif in Rogue One. (via YouTube) 3. Man-portable Fiber Amplifier Lasers Timothy Bradley and Eric Hillenbrand at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Crane, Indiana, have patented a high power laser system. And the patent drawings look eerily like Baze Malbus, the rebel fighter who in Rogue One helped bring down the shield gate at the Battle of Scarif only to die charging the Imperial Shock Troopers who killed his best friend, Chirrut Îmwe.

4 I am one with the Force. The Force is with me. Chirrut Îmwe Back here on Earth, the Navy s researchers envisioned the backpack laser being used to breach metal walls and doors. But Bradley has related inventions that turn this into a mobile laser cannon, capable of shooting down UAVs, or disabling vehicles or enemy missiles. TechLink s Sean Patten is familiar with Bradley s patent portfolio and is seeking businesses who will develop it. via Nerdist 4. Advanced Body and Vehicle Armor Part and parcel of the Imperial Army s battlefield dominance is their use of armor, vehicle and body. Darth Vader s black helmet, the storm trooper s 18-piece white body armor, and the towering four-legged AT-ATs (All Terrain Armored Transport) are unforgettable. And then there s Boba Fett s helmet and body armor, made of Duraplast, a superior metal synthesized from carbon. That armor is too strong for blasters. Luke Skywalker Here on Earth, defense laboratories have advanced vehicle and body armor, making it stronger and more flexible. The opaque ballistic face shield developed by Navy researchers uses fiber optics to collect the real-time image of the scene and project it onto the inside of the face shield. The helmet is non-electric, made from silicon carbide and

5 polyethylene and weighs just two pounds, which is a significant weight advantage over transparent face shields. The passive fiber optic bundles face forward and capture the image and project it onto the inside of the ballistic face shield. Navy researchers have developed a lightweight and flexible body armor as an improved alternative to conventional plate armor, which is relatively large and bulky. The armor comes in two variants: a fabric for the torso that resembles dimpled foam rubber, and an insert of interlocking pieces that lock up into a solid piece upon impact. The protection in the new armor comes from the use of tiny interlocking hexagonal tiles made of boron carbide and silicon carbide. Navy researchers have also developed a method to fabricate nanocrystalline transparent magnesium aluminate that is 50 percent harder than the best materials used in military vehicle windows and optical sensors. This see-through armor has the highest reported hardness of any transparent ceramic, and was achieved by enhanced high pressure sintering using a reduced, 28 nanometer grain size. Contact TechLink s Austin Leach for more details on commercializing this amazing material. 5. Advanced Ship Navigation It takes some imagination to understand how hyperdrive engines allow travel at light speed, but one thing we can safely assume is that with the interception point being somewhat unknown, efforts by Imperial Forces to block rebel starships in hyperspace requires very precise course plotting.

6 That, it turns out, is an issue similar for maritime navigators. To address the problem, the Naval Postgraduate School invented what we call the Oceanic Route Finder. Asteroids do not concern me, Admiral! I want that ship, not excuses! Darth Vader When the Navy hopes to meet another ship at sea, like a refueling ship or enemy star destroyer, thousands of shortest-route calculations must be done in a time frame insensible to a human, so speed in finding the shortest route is of the essence. Thus, the developed program provides a method and system that quickly determines the shortest oceanic route between dynamic points X and Y, using an oceanic routing system in which a computer implements spherical mathematics to calculate the shortest route. If Y is not visible from X, the system uses an overlay of vertexes on the globe and navigates from vertex to vertex. We hope you enjoy watching The Last Jedi, even more now that you know it won t be that long until we re traveling to distant corners of the galaxy thanks to defense laboratories. We know he won t be in this film, but for ol times sake we wanted to end with some Han Solo wisdom. via Newsweek

7 Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid. Han Solo Let's Talk Quinton King, PhD, CLP Me Related Technology Holographic navigation Share Search Technologies Technologies Labs Activities Resources About Contact Defense TechLink 2310 University Way, Bldg. 2-2 Bozeman, MT p f Sign Up for Alerts Sign up to receive alerts on important developments and new technologies available for licensing

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