The original hardsuit research was performed by Dr. Katsuhito Stingray, Sylia's father. He applied some of his mechatronics knowledge acquired from researching and developing Boomers to the field of powered armor suits, and Sylia later developed the hardsuits which the Knight Sabers wear.
All the hardsuits have several systems and basic design features in common. The first is the ceramic and metal alloy exoskeletal armor. This armor serves to absorb and/or disperse the kinetic energy of projectiles, the momentum and energy of melee attacks and impacts, and the energy of lasers and particle weapons, and it is powerful enough that it's impervious to small arms fire. The armor itself is heat and pressure resistant, fully sealed against chemical and biological attack, and is also sealed against nuclear fallout. In order to make the hardsuit livable under such conditions, it must also have full lifesupport and be temperature controlled, plus have a battery pack or fuel cell capable of providing significant amouts of power for a long time. Hardsuits are currently battery powered, with up to 50 hours of continuous use. A second common feature of the hardsuits themselves is their strength amplification abilities. Each hardsuit is capable of amplifying the strength of the person within it by 9 to 10 times.
Other features include the Heads-Up Display (HUD) in the helmet, plus the addition of a solid, armored helmet visor which not only protects the face of the wearer but keeps her identity secret as well. Each hardsuit also has at least a set of jumpjets set into the back and hips for jumps and breaking falls. And each hardsuit also has at least one powered gauntlet which contains most of the integral weaponry. These gauntlets are quick-change mounted for emergency replacement should the need arise. And, arguably most important, the hardsuits are fusion resistant.
All of the hardsuits are similar in another respect as well: they all need to be optomized for a single, specific user. This means that a given hardsuit will be unusable by anyone else without a major refit. Thus each hardsuit is optomized for a given wearer's abilities as well as her limitations.
In order to optomize a hardsuit, the wearer must go through a series of difficult tests wearing a "measuring suit," which the image of Linna shows This process is shown in the series in the Scoop Chase episode, where Sylia spends quite some time with the rest of the team testing them so that they will get the best performance out of their hardsuit. Operating a hardsuit is similar in that a special innerwear sensory suit must be worn in order to interface the body's motions with hardsuit correctly. The innerwear cannot be worn over and underwear because the clothing would interfere with the transmission/reception of biofeedback data. In Bubblegum Crisis, all four characters go through at least two different hardsuit designs.
