Sarcos Robotics Already Receiving Orders for its Guardian XO Max Industrial Exoskeleton

Announced by Sarcos Robotics that they already have the Guardian XO Max exoskeleton ready and that they are already beginning to receive orders for this device.

The fun and disconcerting robots of Boston Dynamics tend to be a trend every time they are seen on YouTube. In this case we will not talk about these robots, but about an exoskeleton developed to help workers. Sarcos robotics has developed an exoskeleton called Guardian XO Max that allows a worker to lift tens of kilos without the slightest effort. The company also says that they have already started to take orders for these battery-powered 'suits' that will begin to be distributed from 2020.

Guardian XO Max, a proletarian exoskeleton for lifting heavy loads

Sarcos Robotics' biggest engineering challenge has been developing the exoskeleton for industrial environments. They had a need to make it functional and to operate efficiently with a reduced battery. It has been taken into account that to be functional it had to operate on a battery for a large amount of time. Operating connected by wiring was not considered, as it was a risk.

It has taken several years of development, but they already have a practical, untethered system called the Guardian XO Max. It can operate for eight hours on a single charge. It has been taken into account that batteries can be hot swapped with ease. This means that the batteries can be changed for charged ones without having to stop the exoskeleton.

“With our innovations in optimizing energy utilization, Sarcos has been able to do what no other robotics company in the world has been able to do with exoskeletons or humanoid robots: empower a human-scale robot by doing meaningful work for eight hours with a single charge ”, explained Sarcos Robotics CEO Ben Wolff.

Reduction of worker fatigue

The company claims that Guardian XO Max offers a force amplification of 20 to 1. This means that 45Kg ends up equaling about 2.2Kg. They wanted to emphasize that there is hardly any latency between the movement of the person and that of the exoskeleton. This suit can therefore easily function intuitively, in real time, to the individual movement or reflection of any worker.

The price of these units has not been specified, but in principle they will not be sold individually. Use will be made of a delivery system based on the Robotics as a Service (RaaS) fee.

Cost, a determining factor

Ben Wolff in an interview with IEEE Spectrum has said that the Guardian XO Max package that includes installation, maintenance and supervision costs "approximately the equivalent of a fully loaded employee, all-inclusive, $ 25 per hour." It is implicit that this device helped the productivity of workers. The proposal seems quite attractive and profitable for construction and manufacturing companies.

Smaller iterations of this exoskeleton technology are already operating in factories around the world. Last year Ford implemented an exoskeleton to support the top of all its factories after a successful test. LG is close to completing the commercial launch of SuitBot, another exoskeleton that will help factory workers lift heavy loads for longer periods of time.

It seems only a matter of time before exoskeletons become one more work tool. This will add safety to factories and will allow the elimination of machinery such as forklifts, the focus of many workplace accidents.