04:20Canadian outdoor manufacturer Arc'teryx Equipment and Google Labs' startup Skip showcased in Canada's Squamish on Friday their $5,000 robotic hiking trousers, employing exoskeleton technology to boost uphill hiking.
The footage displays a model hiking with MO/GO attached to her trousers, other hikers walking without the equipment, and an Arc'teryx manager showing how to use and adjust the device.
"A lot of the time, people's mind immediately goes to going further and going faster and kind of performance, and that's totally part of it," shared Anna Roumiantseva, Skip's co-founder.
She remarked that what inspired them to come up with the equipment was seeing people "getting out into nature with their friends and with their family in ways that they weren't able to, not staying at the trailhead and not staying at home, but kind of doing the things that used to bring them joy."
"The motor assists you, it boosts you as you go uphill, and it supports your knee joints on the way down," Roumiantseva explained how the equipment functions, noting that '80 percent of the work happens before the motor does any work'.
She pointed out that a significant portion of the system's efficacy is attributed to advanced sensors and artificial intelligence, designed to intuitively understand the wearer’s movements and predict the necessary assistance to provide a natural and beneficial support experience.
"Arc'teryx's advanced concepts team is really looking forward to the future, how we're actually going to get people outdoors, experiencing movement, experiencing outdoor spaces for five, ten years out," stated Cameron Stuart, Arc'teryx research and engineering manager, adding that in the MO/GO, they used carbon in their technology.
He highlighted that "the idea is for it to be a hike assist, so it allows us to enable people into the outdoors and really get more people out experiencing the outdoors," and they are 'using cutting-edge materials, utilising a lot of the technologies' to achieve their goal of promoting the outdoors.
According to media reports, the MO/GO pants, which are created for hikers, the trousers can make a hiker feel up to 13 kilograms lighter, thus significantly reducing the physical toll of hiking.
Take a hike! Canadian-made $5K robotic trousers help mountaineers reach new heights
Canadian outdoor manufacturer Arc'teryx Equipment and Google Labs' startup Skip showcased in Canada's Squamish on Friday their $5,000 robotic hiking trousers, employing exoskeleton technology to boost uphill hiking.
The footage displays a model hiking with MO/GO attached to her trousers, other hikers walking without the equipment, and an Arc'teryx manager showing how to use and adjust the device.
"A lot of the time, people's mind immediately goes to going further and going faster and kind of performance, and that's totally part of it," shared Anna Roumiantseva, Skip's co-founder.
She remarked that what inspired them to come up with the equipment was seeing people "getting out into nature with their friends and with their family in ways that they weren't able to, not staying at the trailhead and not staying at home, but kind of doing the things that used to bring them joy."
"The motor assists you, it boosts you as you go uphill, and it supports your knee joints on the way down," Roumiantseva explained how the equipment functions, noting that '80 percent of the work happens before the motor does any work'.
She pointed out that a significant portion of the system's efficacy is attributed to advanced sensors and artificial intelligence, designed to intuitively understand the wearer’s movements and predict the necessary assistance to provide a natural and beneficial support experience.
"Arc'teryx's advanced concepts team is really looking forward to the future, how we're actually going to get people outdoors, experiencing movement, experiencing outdoor spaces for five, ten years out," stated Cameron Stuart, Arc'teryx research and engineering manager, adding that in the MO/GO, they used carbon in their technology.
He highlighted that "the idea is for it to be a hike assist, so it allows us to enable people into the outdoors and really get more people out experiencing the outdoors," and they are 'using cutting-edge materials, utilising a lot of the technologies' to achieve their goal of promoting the outdoors.
According to media reports, the MO/GO pants, which are created for hikers, the trousers can make a hiker feel up to 13 kilograms lighter, thus significantly reducing the physical toll of hiking.
Canadian outdoor manufacturer Arc'teryx Equipment and Google Labs' startup Skip showcased in Canada's Squamish on Friday their $5,000 robotic hiking trousers, employing exoskeleton technology to boost uphill hiking.
The footage displays a model hiking with MO/GO attached to her trousers, other hikers walking without the equipment, and an Arc'teryx manager showing how to use and adjust the device.
"A lot of the time, people's mind immediately goes to going further and going faster and kind of performance, and that's totally part of it," shared Anna Roumiantseva, Skip's co-founder.
She remarked that what inspired them to come up with the equipment was seeing people "getting out into nature with their friends and with their family in ways that they weren't able to, not staying at the trailhead and not staying at home, but kind of doing the things that used to bring them joy."
"The motor assists you, it boosts you as you go uphill, and it supports your knee joints on the way down," Roumiantseva explained how the equipment functions, noting that '80 percent of the work happens before the motor does any work'.
She pointed out that a significant portion of the system's efficacy is attributed to advanced sensors and artificial intelligence, designed to intuitively understand the wearer’s movements and predict the necessary assistance to provide a natural and beneficial support experience.
"Arc'teryx's advanced concepts team is really looking forward to the future, how we're actually going to get people outdoors, experiencing movement, experiencing outdoor spaces for five, ten years out," stated Cameron Stuart, Arc'teryx research and engineering manager, adding that in the MO/GO, they used carbon in their technology.
He highlighted that "the idea is for it to be a hike assist, so it allows us to enable people into the outdoors and really get more people out experiencing the outdoors," and they are 'using cutting-edge materials, utilising a lot of the technologies' to achieve their goal of promoting the outdoors.
According to media reports, the MO/GO pants, which are created for hikers, the trousers can make a hiker feel up to 13 kilograms lighter, thus significantly reducing the physical toll of hiking.