Hypershell has revealed full details of the Hypershell Halo exoskeleton it teased last week.

The Hypershell Halo is the first model from the company to offer support at both the knee and hip joints, as I explained earlier . It costs $2,299, is available to pre-order now for shipping in November.

A lot more core specs are now also available. The Hypershell Halo is a 1,490W peak output exoskeleton. This is significantly higher than the 1000W of the Hypershell X Ultra, although obviously not double the power — the Halo marks a shift from a dual-motor system to a four-motor one.

More motors also leads to higher weight.

The Hypershell Halo weighs 3.2kg, without battery but with all the required fittings elements, compared to 2.5kg for the Hypershell X Ultra . It’s heavier, clearly, but this new exoskeleton extends far further down the leg, with a lower interface point by the ankle rather than ending at the knee like more conventional exoskeleton designs.

The knee motors themselves weigh 170g each, and a Hypershell Halo is 2.6kg without the attachment parts. Hypershell says it’s 77 per cent carbon fiber, five per cent titanium alloy, with rest accounted for by other materials including nylon and stretchy fabrics.

Weight distribution is likely to be a little different this time too, as the battery moves from a central position by the lower back to the side. This will make swapping the battery mid-activity far more intuivive — it’s not at all easy to do “blind” with a Hypershell X Ultra. And it seems this was deemed more important than whatever weight imbalance it introduces.

The battery is a 72Wh unit, the same as the capacituy of a Hypershell X Ultra battery. A more powerful system with the same battery capacity does lead to a drop in stated range compared to the company’s top-end conventional exoskeleton, from 30km down to 20km. That means an easy-swap battery is even more important.

It’s called the PocketBolt battery, and weighs 370g.

As in Hypershell’s existing designs, the Hypershell Halo is not particularly water resistant. It’s rated at IP54, which will give limited protection from rain but not much more than that.

The system that judges how the Hypershell Halo works is called HyperIntuitition 2.0, which comprises the inputs from 30 sensors, and a HyperCore Pro system that turns that data into a prediction of what you’re body is doing. The company claims its predictive algorithm operates predicting 200 milliseconds ahead of real time, and updates 2,500 times a second, in order to limit perceived lag.

The Story Behind Hypershell Halo

Hypershell’s Toby Knisely say the Halo provides “cushioning and support” for the knee, rather than necessarily pushing for improved performance. He also explains the design was landed on after “nearly 200” prototype designs, including early concepts that involved modular design and dual separate exoskeleton setups.

Dual exoskeleton designs were abandoned due to a “lack of synchronization between the control systems,” while modular concepts were found to have “a really significant cost in terms of efficiency,” according to Knisely.

Hypershell has also introduced an AI assistant, called Shelly, which allows for control of the Hypershell Halo through a chatbot interface, accessible using a smartwatch.

The Hypershell Halo is available to pre-order now in the U.S., Canada, Europe and Mainland China for $2,299, withing shipping due in November.