Have you ever seen those Iron Man or Avenger movies and wondered how cool it would be to just blast out of somewhere and land somewhere else in a cool robotic outfit? Then, you sighed, realized how unrealistic it was and went back to living your life.
Maybe, Hyundai doesn’t want you to give up on that dream just yet. Maybe, the iconic red and white suit isn’t feasible just yet, but, maybe a tiny fraction of it might be feasible in your lifetime.
In late 2024, Hyundai and Kia introduced something called the “X-ble Shoulder”, which is said to be a wearable robotic exoskeleton. And why does this need to exist, besides making a Tony Stark invention a lived reality? This is said to be designed to increase worker efficiency and limit injuries. You might look at the camera with a raised eyebrow like James Halpert about whether you’d need an exoskeleton to be more productive at work, but that may be, because manual labour might not be your primary source of income or any income stream whatsoever.
It’s said that industries, like construction, aviation, automotive and shipbuilding, are looking for ways to reduce fatigue, prevent injuries and augment productivity. In the UK, roughly 20% of workplace injuries are said to be directly attributed to manual handling activities, like lifting, carrying or moving objects. In India, there are said to be 17 million occupational non-fatal injuries annually. That’s a lot of injuries every year.
So, what could an exoskeleton do to shake things up? This robotic tech is said to be able to reduce shoulder strain by 60% and decrease muscle activity by 30%. So, that might minimize the risk of repetitive stress injuries. Are there some gym applications here too? Or do you need the strain and pressure to build muscle?
Of course, it’ll be a while before this innovation is commercially available.
And in addition to helping out the shoulder, there are plans to create an exoskeleton for the waist to help lift heavy objects and reduce strain on the lower back, as well as a medical exoskeleton to help with walking rehabilitation. Have you seen those shows, like Breaking Bad or House Of Cards, where the character needs to learn how to walk again after an unfortunate accident or tragedy? This is where this could come in handy.
So, the wearable robotics and exoskeletons market might be a really interesting field and it’s expected to hit close to $3.5 billion in 2025. Whoa.
And if India tries its hand at something like this, how far would it go? Maybe, there’s still a sense that the country is a back-office to the rest of the world, when it comes to software. Could it do something fun with hardware and get to this stage of innovation that’s market-ready? Because something like this might not remain constrained to an automotive assembly line or a shipyard. Maybe, you might see a Tata or Mahindra worker adopting these wearable robotics to help reduce their workplace injuries and beam a bit wider knowing this was made by an Indian company. Or something in construction or e-commerce warehouses might need help reducing physical strain. Still, an exoskeleton for the everyday person seems a little too futuristic. Pipe dream… for now?
These kinds of robotics might be too expensive for mass adoption and enterprise solutions are usually associated with software, but who knows what the future would be like? If you told someone in 2014 that Indian consumers were one of the biggest AI adopters, they might scoff. AI? That’s such a science fiction concept.
Would it be feasible for some Indian robotics startup to reduce costs without sacrificing the durability of the exoskeleton? Or could they go an interesting route: RaaS (Robotics-as-a-Service) as a subscription model for companies? Maybe, a company wouldn’t want to buy wearable robotics outright, so this could be an interesting way to go about it and curate mass adoption. Think of an exoskeleton per worker per shift rented. Could that be a lower barrier to entry?
Though, all of this only happens if we overcome the big “if” of whether India could pull this off. Maybe, the country’s robotics space might still be a bit nascent. Robotics development still needs significant upfront investment in the form of high R&D costs. And how are regulations, when it comes to the use of exoskeletons in the workplace? Maybe, that’s not even been considered yet.
The next time you need to pick something off the ground, will an exoskeleton be accompanying you?
