Powered Clothing is not a robotic exoskeleton. Not in the standard understanding of the term, at least. Seismic CEO Rich Mahoney wants to make that much clear.
Seismic is a unique company that’s Introducing a new product called powered Clothing which is the fusion of apparel And robotics our first product is Integrating what we call intelligent Wearable strength focused on the core And what that does is it symbiotically Provides assistance to the hips and the Lower back to support mobility and Posture so there are many people that Can use that product but we’re really Going where the need is the greatest and Focusing on the broad consumer wellness Market exoskeletons are really what the Public understands what people Understand in terms of wearable robotics But we are absolutely not an exoskeleton And part of our insight is that we Understand and saw that like everybody Is wearing clothing no one’s wearing Robots so our company is a fusion of Apparel and robotics and also informed Quite a bit by biomechanics when we Think about what kind of influences are Gonna directly drive the design of the Apparel it tends to come much of it from The sport performance world so those Tend to be experiences or products that Are built for experiences where you need To have tremendous comfort you need to Have a great range of mobility you need To be cool you need to be dry you need To be comfortable and you need to look Great at the same time I came to SR I
About 10 years ago to be the director of Robotics and one program in particular Was the DARPA Warrior web program and Under that development work we created a Set of lightweight efficient electric Muscles that were aligned with the Objective of that program and that was a Program really focused on wearable Robotic applications that were more Targeted towards fatigue reduction and An injury mitigation and the key thing Was this lightweight electric muscle is Just a very different component that had Ever been available in robotics before The luma acquisition was a really smart Acquisition because of the focus that They had on movement science and Movement analysis especially around the Core and posture and we have such a Focus on core wellness at seismic that The understanding the algorithms Understanding the the lumo use cases Really helped us to integrate both Missions and align them as we acquired Them within seismic The key part of Lumos capability was Actually its ability to use a sensor to Monitor the body and track posture and Our suit makes use of that same kind of Capability but then goes one step Further and allows us to interact with The person and provide active support as Well we have several hundred people Right now using the suits and they are
Absolutely loving it so they’re using it In their everyday to help augment their Strength and their endurance really to Help with their performance we’re seeing Them play tennis in it we’re seeing them Hike in it and hike further than they Have before we actually have on staff PhD by a mechanist PhD physical Therapist occupational therapists my Background actually before coming to SR I was in in developing rehabilitation Technology based on robotics so all of That background actually helped us Understand that we wanted to focus on a Consumer wellness experience to start as Opposed to any kind of medical or Industrial approach and when we’re at Were best we’re at our best rather what We’re doing is taking all those points Of view and melding it into one singular Formula where all those voices become The best approach and in the end of the Day what that is is a user centered Design approach it starts an end with The user we have almost an altruistic Sense of wanting to be not only helpful And driving value in to our users lives But also having them just love the Product and appreciate it for what it is For this product we have explored all of The safety requirements and Certifications so there’s absolutely Consumer safety around battery around This is there’s a wireless
Communications integrated into the suit So the current product focused On the wellness market does not require FDA approval it’s not a medical product So future parts of our roadmap may go There but this doesn’t require FDA Approval so we are a venture backed Early-stage company we’ve raised over Twenty-two million dollars so far from a Variety of investors our current plan is To begin limited placement of product Around the end of this year and and Ramping up with those placements during Next year and then beginning to expand After that we see ourselves being in a Price point that will be very similar to A high-end premium apparel so it’s it is Something that we see is being Accessible and actually fitting well Into the fashion experience for pricing I’ve been in robotics for a while over 25 years now and I actually think Robotics hasn’t even started yet so I do See robotics continuing to be expand in Use in warehouses and other kinds of Settings but it will be a long time Before people are not in those settings And so our expectation is that we will Continue to see our technology become Lighter and smaller and and integrated Into different kinds of applications but We’re already looking at how we can Extend to the the arms supporting the Arm going down the body and into the
Knees and ultimately this has other Applications even more broadly just in General so we think that as a new Platform that we’re starting something Really exciting [Music]
