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[wierd]

Servomotors use electromagnetic repulsion. That brings us back to the magnetic hysteresis and inductive heating problems.

You might not realize it, but copper is also quite heavy, and the amount of copper needed to make that many high torque servo motors is going to be nontrivial.

[NullForceOmega]

Not arguing that part, but it is substantially lighter than a full hydraulic system, though there is a question of the necessary number of servomotors, you don't actually need every joint to have an active motor on it, just properly designed gearing and pulleys.

[wierd]

Still saying that even with ceramic+steel composite construction, and with servomotor drive systems, it is going to weigh more than your 500lb estimate, by a significant amount.  I am still leaning toward the 700lb+ value, without occupant.

[NullForceOmega]

That's the problem that the DoD has been trying to resolve for forty years weird, they haven't got it down yet, and they have billions of dollars to throw at it, we sure as fuck aren't going to solve it throwing jargon and equations back and forth at each other on a forum for a game about drunken midgets with axes and beards.

[wierd]

Like I said, I have actually considered making power armor.

I could probably make something that could protect the occupant from basic hand to hand type melee attacks (baseball bats, et al) but not total ballistic protection from small arms, if I used a distributed network of fuel cells, and a combination of pneumatic (not hydraulic) muscle and servo actuators.

(A pneumatic muscle is basically a rubber hose, wrapped in braided steel fiber. When the hose is inflated, it pulls on the steel fiber sheath, making it contract.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AmAVFSSbS0

Since I am not at all concerned about stopping bullets, the plates of the armor could be made from very lightweight materials, such as corrugated plastics, or honeycomb core composite materials.

Again, this kind of power armor would not stop small arms fire. It WOULD stop baseball bats and similar melee weapons.

[NullForceOmega]

So have I.

Ideally my system would use myomers for muscle function, vastly stronger than anything else available, works exactly like actual muscle tissue.

Doesn't mean either of us has the chops to actually do it though.  However, considering the time and effort the military has put in, and their unwillingness to let it go, they must know a lot more things that we don't than either of us is likely to give them credit for.  I am more than willing to predict that barring unforeseen circumstances, we will be seeing fully NBC rated small arms-proofed powered armor within the next twenty years.  And that it will meet the DoD requirements for weight (which are way more hopeful than mine).

[wierd]

At least in aviation, the usual tricks of the trade for weight reduction are substitution with titanium, inconel, (only for heavy torque bearing surfaces, or for things that need to operate at very high temperatures, like a thrust vectoring nozzle), and use of lightening holes to capitalize on metal grain properties for force distribution.

Each of those has their own unique sets of caveats.  Titanium is hard to machine, and is brittle. Inconel is harder than the hubstones of hades and can handle high heat and pressure--  but is very heavy. (You use it on heavy load bearing surfaces to better handle camming type stresses and the like, due to its high proclivity for work hardening. Under the camming stresses, it becomes work hardened, and then wont deform further.) and lightening holes introduce increased structural fatigue risks, and increase possible damage from "incorrect" angles of load bearing.

(I used to work as an engineer in an aviation setting.)

Even with really sound engineering and state of the art materials selections, power armor is going to be an expensive and heavy prospect. The big thing holding it back is the power plant technology.

[NullForceOmega]

Even with really sound engineering and state of the art materials selections, power armor is going to be an expensive and heavy prospect. The big thing holding it back is the power plant technology.

Note the part I've emphasized here, this is the only actual stumbling block to building PA at a reasonable weight right now.  We most certainly CAN build it at the weight, but each unit would cost as much as a fighter jet; the power production methods exist, but are prohibitively expensive, the energy storage technology exists, but the infrastructure for manufacturing it doesn't, the materials exist, that isn't an issue, the shell could be built right now, but you couldn't power it without the storage systems and power unit.

[Bumber]

You could use carbon nanotubes if you're throwing cost out the window. Bulk (unarranged tubes) should be fine for the armor since we don't need the tensile strength. You could use the wire kind for a pulley system if needed. Thermal and electrical properties can be controlled.

[Facekillz058]

Instead of focusing on thick steel plates to stop bullets, why couldn't you do a layer of Kevlar over a thin piece of steel to catch shrapnel, over a layer of some kind of mesh to absorb the shock? Historically, olde fashioned suits of armor like the knights wore were like, 30-40 pounds. Size that up so you can fit stuff like your power source, padding, hydraulics, etc. in there, so maybe you have 60-70 pounds of steel going now. Throw a thick layer of kevlar over that, (Google says heavier vests are around 50 pounds) which might bring the suits total up weight up to 180-200 pounds, if we're covering the whole body. Add in a layer of padding for shock absorption, and my layman's brain says that the total weight of your shell would be 250 pounds tops. I think space suits are heavier than that. Of course, you still need to factor in how much the technical stuff of your suit would weigh, but I don't really know enough about all that stuff to put those numbers in. Heck, maybe I don't even know enough for the stuff in this post to make sense, I just felt like trying to be smart for 10 or so minutes.

[wierd]

Kevlar body armor "catches" bullets through elastic deformation. It takes around 15 layers of loosely sewn kevlar fabric to do this for small arms fire.  This means that your power armor will be like wearing what this kid from A Christmas Story is wearing.

LOL, jk, but seriously, for that to work like you intend, it would be like wearing a big burlap sack over your whole body, with mechanical actuators underneath that.

[Magistrum]

Some people are not overly fond of autonomous killing machines wandering around, not to mention the practical difficulties of keeping them armed, maintained, fuelled, or stairs.

Meh, an autonomous killing machine is probably better than an autonomous killing person, robots don't panic nor feel rage, there might be less war crimes and civilians should be safe then... Safer than now, at least. Robots are most likely easier to supply than humans, remember also that humans need training in addition to everything a robot need. Stairs are more or less simple, there are many stair climbing robots, but I do accept that a fight in a stair would most likely end up in a very ungraceful fall on his butt.

[Andres]

So any way to do the electricity stuff I mentioned in OP?

[GiglameshDespair]

So any way to do the electricity stuff I mentioned in OP?

Well, you've asked about protecting a non-existent armour  from a non-existing weapon. Without specifics, there's not really a correct answer.

Some people are not overly fond of autonomous killing machines wandering around, not to mention the practical difficulties of keeping them armed, maintained, fuelled, or stairs.

Meh, an autonomous killing machine is probably better than an autonomous killing person, robots don't panic nor feel rage, there might be less war crimes and civilians should be safe then... Safer than now, at least. Robots are most likely easier to supply than humans, remember also that humans need training in addition to everything a robot need. Stairs are more or less simple, there are many stair climbing robots, but I do accept that a fight in a stair would most likely end up in a very ungraceful fall on his butt.

But when they do shoot a bunch of civilians, who is considered responsible? What happens when they face a situation outside of their programming? How far can you trust robotic deduction to shoot the right people? At what point does dumping a bunch of machine-gun armed robots into a country to kill anyone they find suspicious become a warcrime?

[H4zardZ1]

Electricity weapons are NOT nonexistent right now. As i've said, tasers. If someone are carrying lethal (generally giant)tasers, might as well things like this become useful.