Hawker News

The dawn of the age of the exoskeleton

theconversation.com

85 pointsby speckx49 comments

Tossrock[2 comments hidden]
I still remember doing a double take upon walking into the local hardware store perhaps a year ago, and seeing that apparently you could now just buy a powered exoskeleton to eg help you paint ceilings: https://www.festoolusa.com/campaigns/microsites/exoactive
bamboozled[hidden]
Festool is such a great company that makes some amazing stuff, case in point, the example you provided.
JKCalhoun[hidden]
Fascinated as a kid by GE's "Hardiman" exoskeleton [1]. I thought that was the dawn of the age of the exoskeleton.

Adult me is terrified by the thing—it looks like it could snap you in half if you suddenly found yourself less limber than it was.

[1] https://cyberneticzoo.com/man-amplifiers/1966-69-g-e-hardima...

soundworlds[hidden]
I do think exoskeletons are hugely unappreciated and will have an amazing effect on society, due to increased accessibility, endurance, augmentation, while still keeping the human in the driver seat
ambicapter[5 comments hidden]
Slip into this closed-source device which controls your limbs!
yyny[3 comments hidden]
a prosthetic?
__MatrixMan__[2 comments hidden]
Most prosthetics I've seen are less prepared to hurt you if they accept a malicious firmware update.
andwur[hidden]
Or just the good old quality of life update where they forgot the <= v1.0.5 hardware used inverted sensor output, while >= v1.0.6 was non-inverting. "but we have lots of unit tests!"
King-Aaron[hidden]
"Any machine can be a blender if you operate it badly enough"
vigilantpuma[23 comments hidden]
Industrial and military applications are one thing, but I’ve often wondered if exoskeletons would someday become a viable mechanism for helping older people continue to be able to navigate their environment. Maybe it’s something we’ll see in our lifetimes?
ramon156[2 comments hidden]
make it double as an attachment for a stairlift and you have a seriously good product on your hands
vigilantpuma[hidden]
Ideally they would enable an elderly person to no longer need a stairlift.
ArashEdalat[3 comments hidden]
the difficult part for the elderly is how to put it on, the product assumes always someone helps with it, also the weight itself could be a safety hazard
vigilantpuma[2 comments hidden]
Definitely right now. But maybe with time and next (or next-next) gen materials, it’ll become more viable.
m463[hidden]
right, like self-installation.

"hey exo, download me!"

"upload me into bed!"

purple-leafy[10 comments hidden]
Why just the old? I’m “young” and could benefit from an iron man suit
vigilantpuma[hidden]
Ha, to some degree couldn’t we all? But assuming you can negotiate a flight of steps and stand up from the dining table without trouble, your benefit strikes me as less pressing than, say, that of my mother-in-law.
XorNot[8 comments hidden]
I just do a lot of DIY construction. Being able to lift even 100kg safely would be a game changer.

The trades would benefit enormously from such a thing.

smalltorch[7 comments hidden]
I was just thinking trades wouldn't benifit that much. We have trucks and cranes and stuff.

What construction material weighs 100kg? All the stuff is made to be installed by a guy or two. Big stuff is hoisted with cranes, heavy concrete is pumped. A sheet of plywood is carried by one man, a cement block gets plopped 2 feet from where it needs installed one by one, doors and windows are a one man show.

cucumber3732842[3 comments hidden]
>. Big stuff is hoisted with cranes, heavy concrete is pumped.

None of that material handling is cheap.

If exo-skeletons ever get good they should have a good decade long heydey just by virtue of not being regulated to high heaven (yet).

Basically the same reason knuckle booms took over from truck cranes for routine delivery.

smalltorch[2 comments hidden]
>None of that material handling is cheap.

None of it is handled directly by humans either. Exo skeletons would be sweet, I just think in reality construction is already highly optimized for regular strength humans. Would be very slim productivity gains.

fragmede[hidden]
Painting the ceiling is tiresome and is one place an exoskeleton really helps. If someone can paint for 8 hours instead of 6, and be less physically bad off, the gain isn't measured in productivity, it's elsewhere.
jayGlow[hidden]
something that could help reduce repetitive strain would be beneficial. allowing people to work without damaging their bodies as much would be more beneficial than letting someone carry more weight.
nancyminusone[2 comments hidden]
Perhaps you have not experienced the thrill of unloading a pallet of concrete bags. It exists just between the range where it is too big a job for a couple bags in your car, but not big enough to get a truck.
smalltorch[hidden]
I moved 3 pallets of 60lb bags 4 days ago. You have to move heavy stuff from time to time. In these exact moments you learn how to plan for the next time to avoid moving things very far.

Normal construction just isn't that straining to be wearing a exoskeleton.

Even extreamly heavy stuff like countertops, there's purpose built stuff to move these things the last 100 feet already.

In construction, if you know a heavy thing needs moved you procure the means to move it long before expecting someone to show up with a exoskeleton.

I'm not saying it's not cool. I just don't see a major efficiency gain. And, I don't see why anyone would want to rely on a exoskeleton to perform their daily job.

m463[hidden]
older people have money...

beer arm lifter.

grocery bag arm hooks.

dance instructor with couples integration for toe avoidance. [skeptical spouse sales pitch]

seat getter outer. (and toilet sitter downer)

solyin[hidden]
Yes, with the way things are going, that's a prediction that I'm confident will happen. The only question is how long will it take, and what's the rest of everything else going on going to happen.
scun[hidden]
decent mecha-spider legs would kneel for easy mount/dismount
numpad0[hidden]
I think there had been couples of FDA approved rehabilitation use exoskeletons from late 2010s, but the cost was an issue
ch0ke4rtist[2 comments hidden]
Hip and leg prosthetics are already out there, helping the elderly walk. Trump is probably wearing one, that's why he stands at weird angles and looks like he's wearing a diaper.
majorchord[hidden]
I don't see any indication that he wears prosthetics... and it looks like he wears a diaper because he does. The weird standing may just be awkwardness of standing with a full diaper.
germinalphrase[hidden]
To through one more contemporary example into the pot, Arcteryx (the outdoor clothing company) is working with a company called Skip to create a mobility exoskeleton product called Mo/Go. Unclear if it's going to become a real product.

https://squamish.arcteryxacademy.com/mo/go

purple-leafy[2 comments hidden]
As someone with asshole hips at a “young” age (osteoarthritis), I dream of having an exoskeleton so I can hike long distances.

Hell, give me flight while you’re at it - iron man style.

At one point I wondered if it was feasible to get into this industry myself with my prosthetic, electrical engineering, and software background

Maybe with AI assistance it’s possible, or in the alternative case it goes the “Thomas Midgely” way and cripples or maims me further

autuni[hidden]
What stopped you from getting into the industry? Was it just the lack of opportunity? Unless I'm living under a rock I don't think there's too many companies in the industry in the first place.
BLKNSLVR[hidden]
Only if they don't connect to the internet...
simonh[hidden]
The Economist had a decent article about this stuff recently.

https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2026/09/02/...

razster[2 comments hidden]
The way it looks on her makes me think that trump might actually be wearing something similar, with the extra bulk you see in recent months. The taps he makes, the odd gate, kinda makes sense.

cough...Artificial Intelligence...cough

actionfromafar[hidden]
This is downvoted, but these creases on the legs look like braces of some kind.
sleepyguy[4 comments hidden]
How exciting it would be to use EAP's (electroactive polymers) that can bend stretch and change shape in response to electrical signaling. You basically put on a skin tight thick suit (like a dry suit) that is controlled by your own bodies electrical signaling via an implant? Sort of like a fascia outside of the body that gives you a massive boost of strength and super human ability. Fantasy, I know.....
adrianwaj[3 comments hidden]
A pair of skis that have a core that can stiffen under stress, bend or chatter would be interesting too. Wearing exo legs while skiing may work for some, but I think would take away from the fun and challenge. I suppose it'd let a person ski faster, which in turn would warrant the variable core. Wouldn't want to fall though or would the exo legs act as a protective mechanism? The material in the core could also be in the exo legs, like a variable turbo-charger.
dalyons[2 comments hidden]
It’s unclear from your comment as to whether you know, but you can absolutely already buy exo legs for skiing. They’re quite good apparently
adrianwaj[hidden]
Never seen them before and someone sent me a picture showing them, along with some prototype skis I have been thinking about too. https://i.imgur.com/DzlU0Vf.jpeg

I am actually more interested in a ski that doesn't warp under very heavy g-forces, my last prototype did. I wonder what would enable that. My last pair were pine-based.

euroderf[hidden]
TFA takes forever to get around to mentioning it, but yes, these things run on batteries and electricity. So battery power density is that high now? And so, there won't be a version that has a generator driven by a go-kart motor?
CTDOCodebases[hidden]
Its the age of any tech that operates from the unique human perspective because the data it harvests can be used to train AI models.
rwz[hidden]
Perfect. I want my power armor before the Great AI Uprising and the first Robot War begins!
scun[hidden]
Did we learn nothing from The Wrong Trousers?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipRslDOIG5g

jauntywundrkind[hidden]
Maybe it's just an XL diaper, but, seems topical that the commander in chief seems to be wearing what could quite well perhaps be an exoskeleton pretty much on the regular.

This is just one view, one take. There's something going on though, across a while now. Again, maybe just a huge daiper, fine. But sure seems probable to be a exoskeleton. https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3mxf2mlsrb72v

stronglikedan[hidden]
Cool, cool... Now how do we get an LLM inside of one of these bad boys?
omnicognate[hidden]
It's the age of ages. Everything that was is dead and the age of everything that will be is upon us.

This morning I consiged my old underwear to the trash heap of history and strode forward into a new age of fresh boxer shorts. I'm off to write a blog about how to query databases in the age of my new pants.

Cool exoskeletons, though.