During the Beijing Winter Olympics, passengers at the Capital Airport were curious to find that the ground uniform personnel carried a steel bracket on their backs, connected to a U-shaped bracket that extended from the legs to the waist, and the devices on both sides of the waist were constantly shining.
Wang Chao is the founder of Beijing Tiejia Steel Fist Technology Co., Ltd
What is this "black technology"? Originally, this is a set of electric waist-assisted exoskeletons, which help the user complete the bending and getting up movements through the power system of the back.
The exoskeleton weighs only 5 kilograms, and when the staff wears the exoskeleton to carry heavier luggage, the equipment can give the staff 35 kilograms of assistance. During the Winter Olympics, in the face of the heavy task of air transport, this set of exoskeletons came to play a big role.
This magical exoskeleton is from Beijing Tiejia Steel Fist Technology Co., Ltd., and the founder of the company is Wang Chao, who is only 28 years old. When he started his business, he was a sophomore.
The movie "Iron Man" is a young memory for many people. Wang Chao, who is still a junior high school student, also dreamed of becoming "Iron Man" after watching the movie, turning those in the movie into reality. The following year, Wang Chao began to try to make the prototype of the exoskeleton, and even before the college entrance examination, he did not stop this hobby. After finishing the college entrance examination, Wang Chao made his first exoskeleton prototype. Although there is only one arm, it can assist in pull-ups with one hand.
After going to college, Wang Chao continued to spend his spare time delving into this "robot". In 2014, Wang Chao made the world's first exoskeleton arm with power wrapped around the finger. This set of exoskeleton arm concept machine is also a bit bulky, weighing 14 kg, which can increase the arm strength by 60 kgf and the grip force by 40 kgf. In 2015, Wang Chao made a full-body power exoskeleton concept machine, which is not just a mechanical arm, but wraps the upper and lower limbs, and with the prototype of a robot, it can run and carry heavy objects.
Wang Chao introduced that the flexible mechanical exoskeleton system is like the exoskeleton of an insect. When people wear this set of equipment on their bodies and carry heavy objects, they are actually working with a mechanical arm, and the human arm only needs to use a small amount of force. Carrying a refrigerator is like carrying a laptop. This set of exoskeletons can also be used in the fields of disability, military, and industrial, such as helping people with leg disabilities to go upstairs on their own, so that soldiers can walk like flying, run without obstacles, and will not fatigue.
In 2016, Wang Chao set up his own company, Beijing Tiejia Steel Fist Technology Co., Ltd., and got the first order - cooperation with JD Logistics to "support" the front-line employees of express delivery. With the assistance of the robot, the courier brother will be much easier when lifting dozens of pounds of goods, and the damage to the waist will be reduced a lot, and the efficiency will be doubled.
At the 3rd "China Chuangyi" Entrepreneurship and Innovation Competition National Finals, "Iron Armor Steel Fist Exoskeleton" participated in the physical project display as the only representative of Beijing and won the "Chuangyi Star" award.
In recent years, Wang Chao's entrepreneurial team has been expanding, achieving financing, and now has dozens of national invention patents, and has reached cooperation with debon logistics, JD logistics, Cummins, Schneider Electric, Beijing Beer and other companies.
"With the continuous progress of the integration of biotechnology, mechatronics and hydraulics, and control technology, exoskeleton robots will better serve humans in more application scenarios." We will also continue to introduce new exoskeleton products in the future. "In front of Wang Chao's team, a billion-level market is waiting to be discovered.