Last weekend, we spent 30 hours at OSU's HWeekend event hacking together a single joint as a prototype for what will eventually be a full-body exoskeleton.

We don't have a fully fleshed-out plan for this yet, but hopefully this will be something relatively cheap to build with tools and materials commonly available to hobbyists while still being a capable machine: fast enough to feel immaterial and strong enough to fully support a 150-pound human body.

Of course, we need to think about this more seriously to verify those are realistic numbers to attain without adding another 100 pounds of machinery on our backs, but after just 30 hours, we've already glimpsed some of the potential fun we could have with this:

Note the arm is under open-loop, bang-bang control and is capped at 15% of maximum power. The motor is undersized, the gearbox is oversized and is loosely toleranced, etc, etc. We'll be iterating soon.