This Chinese founder is bringing Iron Man-inspired exoskeletons to the masses

Wang Chao shot to fame last month after he lifted a 1.6-ton car on a Chinese TV challenge show.

Photo credit: Pixabay.com

The 25-year-old is not a muscle man – more like a geek – but he did have some help. Wang was fitted out with a smart, external structure not unlike what Marvel character Tony Stark wears to become the superhero Iron Man.

Although the exoskeleton Wang demonstrated on China Central Television was just a concept model, his company is making production-ready versions designed to give logistics workers extra strength to lift heavy objects.

“Humans need to self-evolve from carbon-based life to silicon-based life. The exoskeleton, as a low-cost solution to physically enhance the capabilities of the human body, is just an entry point,” said Wang, the founder of Tiejia Gangquan, which is also the Chinese name of US science fiction film Real Steel.

Weighing only 5.6 kilograms, the device is worn like a jacket and provides an extra 30 kilograms of strength at waist-level when lifting objects. The control system, motor, batteries, and sensors are all packed into a metal case at the rear of the device.

The system has a degree of intelligence: algorithms work with sensors to learn the movements of individual users to make for smoother functioning. The motor responds within a millisecond to any movement and fully charged batteries last for about eight hours.

With the system priced at 29,000 yuan (US$4000) each, early adopters so far include Deppon Logistics, chain store Watsons, and Chinese ecommerce giant JD.com. Chinese retail giant Suning is also developing its own exoskeletons for use by its logistics workers.

A confident Wang, dressed all in black, introduced the exoskeleton at the Alibaba Taobao Maker Festival in Hangzhou last week, where he said the idea for the product was inspired by watching the original Iron Man film when he was in high school. Encouraged by his parents, who were also entrepreneurs, Wang started to work on the idea while still at school.

While studying electrical engineering and automation in university, Wang built an exoskeleton to help people jump higher but ended up breaking a rib while testing it.

The injury did not stop him. In fact, at 19 years old, he decided to drop out of school to create his own startup, putting up 10 million yuan (US$1.4 million) of his own money before raising a similar amount from outside investors in a pre-series A financing round last November.

“Wang Chao is really a geek. He usually rides a hoverboard to my office,” said Cheng Hao, founding partner of iVision Ventures, an early backer of the company who meets Wang every month for updates on the product’s development.

“He is creative, persistent, and can endure loneliness. These are very important personality traits,” said Cheng, adding that Wang “doesn’t have much experience working in an enterprise but should learn quickly.”

Although Wang and his backers have focused on the exoskeleton’s application in logistics environments, Sinolink Securities analyst Meng Pengfei sees bigger potential in the medical field, where the devices can be used for physical rehabilitation.