Gadgetory

hi so if you're anything like me the word exoskeleton suddenly brings to mind things from science fiction in the movies like Doctor Octopus Ironman things to give you superhuman strength and superpowers well the reality is not quite there yet but I'm here at a company called suit X and they are making an exoskeleton with three different components for the shoulders back and legs to give people like me with normal amounts of strength pretty intense strength indeed so let's go inside see what it does and I'm gonna try it out exoskeletons are being used in factories to help prevent workers from getting injured and it only helps you when you're in a high-risk posture like lifting a heavy box or installing screws overhead the suit xmax is modular with three components to protect the shoulders back and legs each piece cost between four to six thousand dollars so how much improved performance or less strain on the body can you achieve by wearing one of these components like can you quantify that yeah for four back acts we've been able to reduce back muscle activations when you're lifting a load by about 66% for our shoulder X you can reduce the significantly we're using a 5-2 pound or a 10 pound tool and then four legs we actually have a setting that allows you to lock the leg so you're maintaining basically a chair and so in that case it's like sitting on a chair you don't really yeah you know you don't you don't expend any effort at all so I can see in a chair position without feeling like I'm using any of my energy and I could stay there for like how long forever I've used it all I've used it during an eight-hour day yeah it's it's you can maintain that position for as long as you like so how are these powered the actual mechanism for generating power is all passive so it's a really clever arrangement of Springs however the leg has a very small computer in it that basically tells it when to turn on and turn off but all the other devices are purely mechanical if I put all of them on all together am I gonna feel like I'm literally like walking in an Ironman suit the weight of the device is around 27 done everything put together comes in probably around 20 pounds however when you're wearing the legs all that weight gets transferred to the ground through the legs okay let's go suit up but stop I put on the back X it's gonna help me lift heavy weights like boxes okay so now you're in that's the device it's it's pretty lightweight you shouldn't feel like it's in any way it's comfortable and then so when you bend down you know nothing nothing's happening yeah that's all nothing's happening you come back up the two switches down on the back and then when you bend forward you'll feel it supporting yeah Wow if you'd like to lift just kind of do it with and without the suit how heavy is this this is probably about 20 pounds okay so something I would probably struggle with normally oh maybe I'm it's a weight that's pretty common in packaging and warehouses all right switches are off proof this is just my normal strength and the knees yeah I mean I can lift it but switches going on and then go ahead and try to give you notice that I'll kind of pull your foot like that would be Thea 20 pounds is easy so I take it up a notch and try 50 pounds no go ahead and push the push it down alright it's like supporting Riya the check this is crazy like I know I'm lifting it but it's not that heavy it feels like the 20 pound box we don't we don't necessarily recommend lifting like a hundred pounds you recommend lifting the same amount of load that you would normally do but with the suit you'll no defense a lot like it feels like a lot next is the shoulder X it supports your arms while working overhead or anything that involves you having your arms up like using a drill I'm locked in and ready to try installing some screws on a wall so if you bring your arms down completely to the side you'll notice that there's no support right now it's not helping you but once you bring your arms up to overhead position you'll notice that it it's actually providing a support yeah I like I'm not doing anything animal my muscles it's not working at all like they just just hanging out it feels really light all right Oh feels like nothing I could do this all day I see what you're doing you're trying to put me to work to fix everything in here you didn't need to put that board up last but not least is leg X that helps you maintain your position Vinc jackhammering and you're on the right track turn go ahead go ahead and turn the device on all right there's two buttons here two buttons right there no it's blue so now you can go ahead and walk around you'll note that it's not going to turn on it's not gonna impede you in any way yep no but when you squat it'll provide you a spring support all right oh it is a string so I have to balance myself right I'm not gonna order balance me right the balance is still on you but you will feel that your quads won't be working in I mean I'm just jumping it doesn't make you jump haha but it's very easy and it takes a little strain off another mode here which is called chair mode which is basically where it's gonna lock out your knee joint and so you can just basically sit on the device kind of like a chair okay there we go I hit I hit the floor yep it's very comfortable mm-hmm yeah so easy okay it makes this look easy my body can't do this without this so now I've tried all of the three components separately it's time to suit up and put all of them on at the same time but funnily enough we found another use for shoulder X our cameraman John is using it as kind of a makeshift stabilizer slash Steadicam it looks pretty comfortable it's taken the weight out of his arm I think we should get one for you oh yeah here we go just kidding I don't actually walk like that I walk totally normally it's completely fine it's not restricting my movement I can feel it and I look arms up like my arms are floating I wanna crouch down Springs me back up again but everything on this is so cool shame mode activated I feel like I'm in Titanic you know the same for I'm like at the front when Leo and Kate Winslet or at the front of Titanic the exoskeleton is not designed to impinge on movement so you can do just about anything you normally would like driving riding a bike or even running on a treadmill unfortunately though it's not helping me walk any faster so I don't know why you try running in an exoskeleton but the point is you can do it I'm going to show you how this is brisk walking speed 3 miles an hour basta far enough off miles an hour ok the pasta 5 miles an hour I got this I can be back in 1 alright I've got my 10 calories in now bring it back down so wearing all three components of the suit xmax the leg X the shoulder X and the back X I kind of feel superhuman and I don't want to take them off thanks so much for watching make sure to ring the bell and subscribe and like this video I'll let me know what you'd like me to test out next thanks for watching too easy I could do this all day and I want to do this all day but my body could do it