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Oops, I did it again: I wore an exoskeleton for the world’s largest tech show, and walked the streets and casinos of Las Vegas with a robot moving my legs. I don’t mean that I tried a new tool there briefly. I mean, for the second year in a row, robotic legs helped me walk long distances to do my work at CES.
But this year, I found it easier, because the fanny pack was my outer shell of choice.
Exoskeletons are no longer just for the military, construction and hospitals. There is a growing category of hip, knee, and ankle-mounted versions for recreation and rehabilitation. It doesn’t make us faster or stronger, but it does make people walk and hike longer. They put a pep in your step. And there’s no better place to experience this robot-assisted future than at a tech event in Vegas, where so many robots are roaming the halls that security won’t even wonder why they’re strapping motors to my ass.
But with $2000 Automated robots Wim Swhich promised to reduce my effort by up to 20 percent, instead clipped these motors in my body before. And while it may have been a mistake to add more to my long list of transgressions, this fanny pack design made a huge difference.
“How fast can you go?”
I’m always asked how fast you can run or how fast you can lift, but these aren’t the legs of a robotic cheetah. None of these recreational and rehabilitation exoskeletons make you walk faster or carry more weight — although I can take longer strides for longer without fatigue, which adds to the speed difference. My feet felt sore after miles of use, because they couldn’t bear any weight on You, too.
But I’m almost never tired, because the motors help lift my legs and cushion the impact. Wirobotics says this reduces your effort by up to 20 percent, and I can feel it when I turn it off—simple walking becomes noticeably harder, like gravity suddenly weighing down on me. Turn it on, and you can keep going longer. “It was like I had an extra energy tank in me Metroid “A game,” is how Hypershell was described last year.
Some exoskeletons can also reverse their motors to help you build strength and burn calories by adding extra resistance: Wim S calls it “Aqua mode” because it’s like walking through water; With Hypershell, it’s “fitness mode.”
The Hypershell Pro XI tested last year worked great when power walking in Vegas, but it hurt whenever I tried to sit. As I climbed into cabs, worked on my laptop, or wore a heavy backpack, the Hypershell’s large battery and rear crossbar were naturally pushed into my spine. I had to find backless chairs last year in restaurants and bars. Not anymore!
It was also not easy to quickly get the Hypershell on and off and store it in my bag: While the 5.3-pound exoskeleton was folded, it was still about the size of a small suitcase and took a concerted effort to wrap around my body and attach.
The 3.6-pound Wirobotics Wim S is so easy by comparison: so small, so light, and so quick to set up, detach, fold and unfold, I put it down once while Walking Down the hall at the Venetian Hotel. It attaches reassuringly to the anchor points on its padded belt, then to the two leg straps. Detached, I can easily store it in my backpack where it can charge my 30W USB-C battery (USB-C PD).
It’s a good thing I was able to remove it and charge it on the go, because although it had more than enough power to get me up my feet, the battery let me down. On the second day, after walking three miles, I received no warning before the power suddenly went out.
At less than 50Wh, the battery capacity is less than many gaming laptops, let alone the 16-inch MacBook Pro. My test unit also had an incredibly unhelpful battery meter: When I was checking the app throughout the day, it would sometimes say my remaining battery life was 40 percent, then minutes later it would jump to 70 percent.
(The original Wim from Wirobotics offers interchangeable battery packs, but the more compact Model S does not, and it doesn’t fill me with confidence that the spec sheet says the battery is exhausted and needs to be replaced every year.)
One added benefit of the Wirobotics’ front fanny pack design is that the leg lift levers rarely get in the way. While the Hypershell and similar options have hip-hugging motors attached to fixed bars that wrap around my body, blocking easy access to pants pockets and preventing wider-bodied people from sitting inside, the Wirobotics can lift upright using motors actually placed in front of each leg.
The flat bars also provide good laptop comfort when I’m sitting down to work, and they’re nice and flat unlike my actual lap, though I probably want to cover them with a softer material to avoid metal-on-metal sliding. I also found that the Wim’s joints, including a ball joint at each leg and a telescoping joint that dynamically lengthens each arm while walking, did a better job of following the natural movement of my legs.
I know canvas bags have a fashion stigma, but honestly, the Wim Bag was easier to hide as well, mostly because I could tuck the bag under my shirt. With the Hypershell, I had to hide it under a full jacket.
I’m sure there are downsides to this design that would be more obvious to a mechanical engineer. The Wim’s little motors didn’t particularly help me up stairs, if you’re looking for that, even though it advertises a hiking mode. And I really hope that whoever designs the next one of these things is thinking about people who need to wear regular belts – it would be nice if Wim could hold my pants up (through the belt loops, perhaps?) or stop pulling them down the front. I ended up wearing my regular belt underneath.
But I can actually see myself wearing a device like this more often in old age. Or sooner, if I have another accident and need to build my ability to walk again. As for this device, Wirobotics put it on sale in Korea last year and is looking to expand into the US, Europe and Japan – which is apparently the company’s goal. I already spoke with Best Buy.
Should I play Cyborg again at CES next year?
Photography by Sean Hollister/The Verge
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