They take the cyborg thing seriously at Ekso Bionics. A wall of sci-fi movie postersRoboCop, Iron Man, Transformers, The Terminatorline the snack room at the 8-year-old company in the historic Ford Motor assembly plant in Richmond, Calif. Engineers and technicians in the open, sunlit space fish around in parts bins for tiny screws, hydraulic tubing and velcro straps. Others peer through magnifying lenses while they craft custom circuit boards that control the exoskeletons that Ekso sells to rehab clinics and hospitals. One of the units being prepped for shipment is hooked up to a motion-controller for testing, dancing herky-jerky to its own music as it cycles through a diagnostic loop.

About twenty feet away in an open floor space, Im being fitted into an experimental new exoskeleton created for a Darpa-funded effort called the Warrior Web. The projects goal is to create a low power (under 100 watts), lightweight (40 lbs), under-the clothing exoskeleton that lets soldiers walk, run or climb farther and faster without extra effort. Before I could walk, or run, I had to go first through the equivalent of a custom-suit fitting. An Ekso technician took about 15 minutes adjusting all the Velcro straps so the motorized leg braces would fit snugly down my legs and snap into the military boots.

The company tells me no one outside the company has worn this before, which is exciting but also scary. What if it runs me into a wall or through a window? That wont happen, says the engineer, the motors kick in only when they detect youre movingand the speed is controlled. Um, okay. He was right. It worked as promised. Check out the demo video below.

The Warrior Web exo is controlled by a computer attached to the camouflage backpack. The computer reads leg movements and kicks in the right hydraulic boost (with the reassuringly RoboCop-like zzzt-zzzt-zzzt sound) to kick my legs forward just enough so I dont have to work as hard. Walking quickly in the suit is almost like being buffeted by a light wind at your back. When I break into a light jog, the motors get my knees up just a bit higher than I normally would. Overall, the experience is quieter and the gear is lighter-weight than anything out there. Its a long way from Eksos original Darpa-funded eLEGS exoskeleton that used a four-stroke Honda engine.

Ekso began life as a series of breakthroughs at the robotics and human engineering lab at UC-Berkeley. Engineers there figured out how to produce an exoskeleton that runs on a fraction of the power of existing models. In 2007 a team led by Berkeleys Nathan Harding, Russ Angold and Homayoon Kazerooni set up shop in an office down the street, conveniently located above the nuts, bolts and wires of an Ace Hardware store. Berkeley Bionics became Ekso and snagged several defense contracts to move its technology along. Hanging from a clothes rack at Eksos offices are the prototypes from the HULC program that Ekso worked on with Lockheed Martin in the late 2000s. HULC, short for human universal load carrier, is an untethered exoskeleton designed to allow soldiers to walk or run while carrying 200-lb. burdens. Ekso also worked with Lockheed on FORTIS, the successor to HULC. Its a suit that directs the weight of a heavy load from above ones head to the ground so that repairmen or welders can use heavy tools for longer periods of time. Those military projects are on the back-burner right now while Ekso focuses on the rehab market.

Ekso in early 2012 shipped the first commercialized robotic exoskeleton, to Craig Hospital in Denver, Colo. With 45 suits sold in the first nine months of 2014, more than double the total number it sold in 2013, Ekso by far leads the nascent market for commercial exoskeletons. Its bionic machines strap around the waist and down the legs of paralyzed, injured or stroke-impaired patients. Sensors detect when the wearers weight shifts and activate motors that can lift them up from a chair and assist in moving them forward in a reciprocal gait. It is remarkable technology and its incredibly moving to hear the testimonials of formerly wheelchair-bound people who can now interact at eye-level with others.

As a business, selling exoskeletons is not yet a path to riches. Ekso, publicly traded since January, has seen its shares fall from $7 to $2 this year as it continues to pour money into a new sales network and a slew of research projects. These can range wildly in scope. One project tucked away in the back of the factory is the SOCOM-funded Talus program, a conceptual bionic suit using ballistic body armor not too far off from Tony Starks, but in black. It would be for use by the soldiers who need to run through doors first and ask questions later. At the other end of the spectrum is the NIH grant Ekso announced this week to develop an exoskeleton for injured children, working in conjunction with the pediatric rehabilitation practice at UCSF Benioff Childrens Hospital in Oakland. The age of the cyborg will bring a mechanical assist to all.

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First Look At A Darpa-Funded Exoskeleton For Super Soldiers