While I was covering CES, the big consumer electronics show in Las Vegas, I gave myself a side quest: try on every exoskeleton I could find. I kept seeing them at booths and events, promising to help me walk farther without fatigue, or reach my athletic potential as I'm (judging from their marketing videos) sprinting up a mountain. I ended up testing six of them—four assisted me at the hip, one at the knee, and one at the ankle.
Many of the exoskeleton companies positioned their products as fitness tech, with companies like Ascentiz and Hypershell using images of hikers and athletes in their marketing. My colleague James Bricknell from CNET took a Hypershell exoskeleton for a hike on a nearby canyon trail during CES, and said that it helped him easily keep up with more experienced hikers. (I borrowed that exact exoskeleton from him when we ran into each other in CNET’s newsroom and took it out for some impromptu sprints in the hallway.)
First, since I know you all want to see what they looked like and hear how they felt, I’ll give you a tour of the ones I tried, ranked from my least to most favorite. Then, below, I’ll give some thoughts on whether I think exoskeletons are worthwhile, and what I learned after talking to an expert who uses medical grade exoskeletons for physical therapy in rehabilitation facilities.
Unimpressive: WiRobotics WIM-S ($1,905)
Credit: Beth SkwareckiThis minimalist unit from WiRobotics was the last one I tried before leaving CES, and I’m sorry to say it comes in last place in my ranking as well. By this point, I’d tried several other hip-based exoskeletons that fit well and provided a significant boost to my walking and stepping. I loved the slim profile and simple design of the WIM-S—that is, until I turned it on. I was led up and down a mini staircase in the WiRobotics booth a few times before it was time to hand over the device to the next person in line. The WIM-S just didn’t feel like it was doing much.
Credit: Beth SkwareckiWiRobotics' design keeps the device fully in front of your hips, pushing down on the front of your leg. It feels a bit like when you push your hand against your knee to help you stand up. The WIM-S isn’t available for sale in the U.S. yet, but goes for the equivalent of $1,905 in South Korea.
I’m definitely feeling something: Sumbu ($1,199-$1,999)
Credit: Rena GoldmanI visited the booth later on, in CES’s “Eureka Park” area dedicated to startups. I walked up and down the provided mini stairs, and felt the exoskeleton helping me easily step up, even when I took the stairs two at a time. I also stepped up onto the top of the stair unit when I was standing next to it—three stairs tall, I think—slightly surprising the people at the booth. But the exoskeleton made it feel easy.
Sumbu sells three models of exoskeletons: the lightweight S3 ($1,199), the more powerful S3 Pro ($1,499), and the “maximum power” S3 Ultra ($1,999).
Helping me run: Ascentiz ($1,499 and up)
Credit: Beth SkwareckiEach exoskeleton basically treats a joint of your body as a hinge. Your knee is a natural hinge joint; your hip can move in different directions, but when you’re wearing an exoskeleton, it only assists you in forward and backward motion—hip extension and flexion, to put it in terms a physical therapist or fitness trainer would recognize. Hip-based exoskeletons assist your glutes in straightening your hip and/or assist your hip flexors in raising your leg in front of you.
Credit: Beth SkwareckiAscentiz is currently running a Kickstarter for funding, and lists prices on its website. The H1 (hip) module is going for $699 to $999, and will have a suggested retail price of $1,499 to $1,999 depending on whether you go for the “Pro” or “Ultra” model. The knee module (K1) covers both knees and costs about $100 more. The full set, with both hip and knee assistance, will sell for $2,499 to $3,399.
Sprinting around the hallways like a goofball: Hypershell X Ultra ($1,999)
Credit: Rena GoldmanAs I mentioned above, I borrowed my CNET colleague James Bricknell’s Hypershell X Ultra unit for a quick spin around the conference halls. I was impressed at how much its “beast mode” helped me do step-ups onto a chair, so then I decided to see if it could help me jog…and then run…and then sprint. And then attempt some quick turns and stops to see if it could keep up. (This was the first hip-based exoskeleton I tried to run in.)
Credit: Beth SkwareckiUnlike some of the other exoskeletons on this list, the Hypershell is already on the market, and that’s probably why its technology feels a bit more mature. (It claims to be the first consumer outdoor exoskeleton.) The Hypershell X Ultra goes for $1,999 and the company’s lowest-price model is the Hypershell Go, at $899.
Going easy on my knees: Skip Mo/Go ($4,999)
Credit: Beth SkwareckiI had to change out of my jeans and into the special pants, and then I could snap on the motor and start climbing stairs and squatting. The feeling is different than on the hip exoskeletons, as you might imagine. The motor essentially acts as an extra quad muscle, helping to straighten my knee, and slowing me down as I’m descending stairs.
I only ran a few steps, but the running didn’t feel great—you can tell it’s not meant for that motion, at least not yet. I didn’t find these as comfortable as the other exoskeletons I tried, because the cuffs were inside the pants. That meant I had them contacting my bare skin, where they got sweaty and seemed like they might chafe. It also wasn’t particularly easy to get the pants on—if I had mobility issues, I’d probably want help with that. The Skip representative mentioned that the exoskeleton can be removed from the pants and worn without them, which is probably what I’d do if I owned a pair.
Skip’s Mo/Go isn’t available yet, but you can place a pre-order on the device now, which will eventually cost $4,999.
Putting a spring in my step: Dephy’s Sidekick ($4,500)
Credit: Beth SkwareckiDephy calls its exoskeleton “powered footwear.” The Sidekick has two parts: a shoe with a carbon plate, and a robotic arm that hugs your shin just below the knee. Dephy worked with Nike, and both companies came up with their own version of the exoskeleton; you can see Nike’s version here, branded as “Project Amplify.”
The shoes can be worn on their own, and they’re cushy—I kept hearing people compare them to Hokas. They were certainly more comfortable than my own beat-up Nikes that I was wearing to get around the show halls. There’s a connector on the back, and the robotic arm hooks into it. If the arm were to detach while you’re wearing it, it would fall behind you, rather than in front.
Credit: Beth SkwareckiI took a few steps at Unveiled, and even did a sprint through the crowd. Running felt weird, but not necessarily bad. Later, taking a longer walk through Eureka Park, I could definitely believe that Dephy’s ankle-based exoskeleton would save me more work and fatigue than the hip-based models I mentioned earlier.
I worried about the quick motion of the motor pulling me (or, hypothetically, an older person with mobility issues) off balance, but the way the device is programmed, that seems a lot less likely than I assumed. The motor only kicks in while you’re walking forward, and stops assisting when it detects a sideways, backward, or otherwise unexpected step. At one point I dodged around somebody’s dog in a cramped corner of the show floor, and the Sidekick stopped assisting for those few steps, then went right back to helping me move forward.
Before I can say that exoskeletons are useful in the real world, I’d have to know that they work, that they’re worth the cost, and that they make sense for the people who are most likely to want them.
Cost is a problem, though. Who is going to spend $1,000 to $5,000 for a little assistance in walking or hiking? Serious hikers and runners would probably rather train harder to handle tough terrain and spend the money on gear or coaching. People who don’t normally hike might enjoy keeping up with their friends, but what non-hiker is going to spend that kind of money on a hiking exoskeleton?
After trying the devices and frowning at the cost, my biggest question was whether exoskeletons could be useful for people with mobility issues due to disability or chronic health conditions. And to get a better sense of that, I talked to someone who has been working with exoskeletons in a medical setting for years.
How these consumer exoskeletons compare to medical devices
These exoskeletons can help people to walk who may not have been able to walk on their own before, or who are recovering from strokes or brain or spinal cord injuries. The more steps you get in, the better your nervous system gets at learning how to balance and walk.
Getting an exoskeleton approved as a medical device takes a lot of time and money for the manufacturer, Clark explained. Medical devices need to undergo a type of FDA approval similar to that for drugs. The manufacturer has to show that they use good manufacturing processes, and they have to run clinical trials showing that the device is safe, and then that it is effective for a specific medical condition.
With the particular models I saw being so new, if I were in that position, I’d also be nervous about whether the devices work as promised, whether they’re safe, and whether the company would stay in business over the years to provide support in case anything goes wrong.
Still, she sees cost as a major barrier. “My challenge to these companies is: how do you create something that is user friendly, that is slim profile, that could really promote these changes in independence and quality of life—but at a price point or in a way that is accessible to them?”
That’s where I land as well. The technology is promising, but at the current price point, I’m not sure that they’re accessible to enough people with mobility issues, or worthwhile enough for athletes. But since the devices I tried are new to the consumer market, I’m looking forward to seeing if there are improvements in price and technology in the years to come.
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