With every step upward, you feel a force propelling you forward.
Put on the exoskeleton, fasten the three quick-release buckles, and tentatively take a step—you immediately feel power being transmitted. Second step, third step... Gradually, the machine understands your intentions, adapts to your walking rhythm, and walking becomes less strenuous.
In July, the 2026 "Vibrant China Research Tour" Guangdong Station themed interview visited JIKe Tech Co., Ltd, located in Shenzhen. This piece of equipment worn on the legs features a carbon fiber frame and the entire machine weighs only 1.8kg—about the same as a lightweight laptop. But once worn, muscle fatigue drops by 63%.
In fact, the principle behind these exoskeleton robots isn’t complicated—the machine uses sensors to perceive a person’s gait, and within a very short time, judges how fast the next step should be taken and how much force to use, then uses micro-motors to power the joints. What’s hard is making this device light, affordable, and avoiding “fighting” against its user.
“It's not about doing what people don't want to do, but helping people do what they really want,” said Sun Kuan, founder of JIKe Tech Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "JIKe").
The conventional impression of exoskeleton robots is that they are cumbersome, expensive, and tied to hospital rehabilitation departments, relying on hydraulics or pneumatic structures and moving sluggishly.
But what Sun Kuan set out to do was something else: an everyday piece of gear you can wear outside or to hike a mountain—in other words, representing a young and cool lifestyle.
In 2021, Sun Kuan founded JIKe Tech. In hand were more than just countless simulation models, but also ideals and passion. Over the next two years, he met with many investors. Most conversations followed the same script: Exoskeletons have been developing for decades and the industry hasn’t taken off—why would you succeed? Do ordinary consumers really need this?
These are not unreasonable questions. Before JIKe, most exoskeleton companies worldwide targeted medical rehabilitation or military scenarios; consumer products were virtually non-existent.
In 2019, Unitree Robotics from China spurred industry innovation, technology matured, and hardware cost constraints were broken. Sun Kuan saw an opportunity: to start a business at 1% of the previous cost. In 2023, with crowdfunding, JIKe created the world’s first single-motor consumer-grade exoskeleton. But the team decided internally: don’t ship—tear it down and start over.
The reason was poor user experience. Users of the first-generation product complained about a strong sense of restriction and awkward movement; if walking fast, the machine would “fight” against the person. “If we went into mass production, both the company and the industry would get hurt,” Sun Kuan said.
No need to elaborate on how hard it was to start over, but what did the company gain after pushing everything down and rebuilding?
The biggest change in the second generation is the joint structure. Each joint adopts a specific power mode, no longer treating the leg as a simple lever, but instead simulating the real movement of a human body in natural terrain. The result is—when facing rocks, steep slopes, steps, the machine works with people to achieve a wider range of motion, rather than dragging people along.
The hardest part of producing exoskeleton robots is "not fighting with people." Human and machine correction methods and movement rhythms differ—a slight delay makes users feel resistance. JIKe trains models with vast amounts of real data, enabling machines to interpret user intent in just 0.31 seconds.
Soon, this iteration proved itself in the market. Now, JIKe’s core users fall into three groups: outdoor photographers and hikers, firefighters, and outdoor emergency rescue workers.
Currently, JIKe’s consumer-grade exoskeletons hold the top spot in their industry, with products covering over 70 countries and tens of thousands of end users.
Why Take Root and Grow in Shenzhen?
Sun Kuan originally started his business in Shanghai, but ultimately moved the company to Shenzhen. This decision was based on industrial development logic.
Exoskeletons are highly interdisciplinary products: robot structure, ergonomics, embodied intelligence, sports medicine—all are indispensable. Shenzhen can quickly pull together talents from these fields. More importantly, the city has a complete hardware industry chain—from chips, motors to precision machining—suppliers can be found within a few kilometers. For a complex structural component, you can redesign in the morning and have a sample by afternoon.
This high level of industrial clustering provides fertile ground for startups and greatly shortens the product iteration cycle. Shenzhen's Nanshan District has 200 robot-related enterprises, including 32 specialized and innovative "little giants" and 15 listed companies.
Shenzhen also provides a natural testing ground for products. According to Sun Kuan, the city’s high density of urban ecological parks and country trails means the team often goes out for hands-on testing, spotting problems in the morning and fixing them that afternoon.
In just a year, JIKe became a star company in this track, expanding from 40 to over 300 employees.
“Is JIKe afraid of being copied?” asked the reporter.
Sun Kuan replied: At present, the main focus is on a deeper understanding of user needs, instead of overfixating on competitors or superficial market fluctuations. He believes only by truly understanding users can breakthroughs be found and sustainable product innovation be achieved.
The exoskeleton market is still in its infancy. Sun Kuan welcomes more people to enter the exoskeleton field, grow the pie, establish this category’s market position, and jointly promote prosperity of the whole ecosystem.
To support the development of Shenzhen’s robotics industry, Nanshan District government has set up the first AI community computing camp in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. Relying on the Guangdong Embodied Intelligence Innovation Center, they provide key public service support for AI talents and enterprises, and have implemented an “invest early, invest small” strategy to make simple procedure investments in companies at critical breakthrough stages—solving funding needs.
In view of most robotics firms not achieving mass production and still being in scenario testing stages, Nanshan District also carries out a “challenge-based leaderboard” policy, through which the government proactively connects and matches supply and demand, lowering real-world testing and trial-and-error costs for companies.
“Where companies should be based should be left to the market. The government is responsible for cultivating the soil,” says Liu Min, Deputy Director of Nanshan District Bureau of Industry and Information Technology.
At Nanshan Robot Valley in Shenzhen, this company with an average employee age of under 30, is turning lab products into gear ordinary people can use in daily life. Sun Kuan firmly believes that robots have never been meant to stand opposite humans, but rather to stand behind them: to boost, to support—so people can go farther.