We Raced in Exoskeletons to See if They Actually Help

We've come here because we are going to test

the two latest exoskeletons to come on the market

to see if they will turn us into some sort of mixture

between Robocop and the Terminator,

or they'll end up being Wallace's wrong trousers.

I'm wearing the Dnsys X1 Carbon Pro.

And Chris, what have you got?

I've got the Hypershell X Ultra.

They're both the latest versions.

Quite a few people will have seen them at CES recently.

We're gonna test them out by racing.

It's gonna be terrible.

It's gonna be awful.

[Jeremy] Both of these exoskeletons are designed

to assist human movement.

And both enticingly promise reduced effort,

and increased endurance,

using AI to track gait and terrain changes.

Now, to test that, we ran a series of athletic challenges.

Well, athletic as we could get,

including a controlled 400-meter run, 60-meter sprints,

and continuous stair climbs.

We did all of our tests without exoskeletons first,

and then repeated each on both the Hypershell and the Dnsys

all while tracking heart rate, pace, and distance,

with our smart watches.

Although the tests weren't perfect,

and smartwatch data isn't 100% reliable,

the trend was clear.

Using the exoskeletons did help.

Times were generally faster with them, than without.

And our heart rate averages were lower too.

The difference between how the exoskeletons performed though

was marginal,

with the Hypershell just edging the Dnsys on our run,

and the sprint race was almost identical.

However, despite being very similar on paper,

and giving similar levels of augmented performance,

there was one clear winner.

The Dnsys is noisy.

[Chris] What was that?

I couldn't quite hear you over the sound.

My god, that's noisy.

And feels jerky and uncontrolled in higher modes.

Stop! Stop! It's definitely wrong trousers territory.

I feel like my legs are being dragged up.

It has an unfinished Batman utility belt look to it,

which is sort of cool,

but elements of the design are a bit messy.

Look at all this Heath Robinson, bits stuck on,

this stuck on.

Using it, we really felt the weight of the exoskeleton,

especially on the hips,

even though it's technically lighter.

The Hypershell X Ultra, on the other hand,

delivers smooth, quiet assistance that feels natural.

Feel less like Pinocchio in this one.

[Chris] Yeah.

[Jeremy] With a noticeably sleeker design.

Overall, despite doing what they say they can,

neither exoskeleton felt ideal for running long-term,

and the performance gains are marginal

for able-bodied people.

But for older users, and those with limited mobility,

or even out of shape product testers,

the benefits are clear.

Is that the last one?

[Chris] Yep, we're done. Oh, thank God.