As it turns out, the crux of the invention was head-slappingly simple: though a patent-pending idea Smith calls "get out of the way control, " the unit measures the load on each joint as its operator moves about, and figures out the direction it needs to move in 3-D space to literally move out of the way.

ENGADGET: Raytheon's Sarcos XOS 2 military exoskeleton just does the heavy lifting -- for now

Does this point to the possibility of a unit that was out of control?

NPR: Pentagon Probes Marine Killings in Iraq

Together, the camera and laser sensors monitor the white lines and, if the car strays out of its lane, an electronic control unit attached to an electric power-steering unit corrects it.

ECONOMIST: Motoring

PCs, do the work of plucking the data out of the ether, rather than relying on a central unit to control the way those data are routed.

ECONOMIST: Ethernet