Check this out for a robot suit! © Furrion Robotics

Capable of jumping 10-foot [3.05m] in the air, leaping a car in a single bound and running at 18mph [28.97kph], the recently revealed Prosthesis by Furrion Robotics looks a lot like a robot, but it’s not – at least, not quite.

Effectively a robot suit, the Prosthesis amplifies its pilot’s actions, allowing humans to race like never before. And it could herald the beginning of a whole new sport, with hopes high for Dubai’s upcoming World Future Sports Games . We talked to two of the men behind the mech – Prosthesis inventor, now president and chief technology officer of Furrion Robotics, Jonathan Tippett, and Furrion co-founder and chief marketing officer, Matt Fidler.

Established in 2005, US-based Furrion is on a mission to “reinvent luxury for a new generation”. And while their 180-strong team may be better known for appliances and AV equipment today, following the creation of the Furrion Robotics division in 2016, they could be on the brink of an adventure sports revolution. According to Fidler, Prosthesis is a case of life imitating art. Borne from the conceptual sketches of Tippett, Prosthesis was incubated in the eatART Lab. Its development was shaped by dozens of engineering students, volunteers, sponsors, supporters, and multiple trips to Burning Man, over the course of 10 years.

“At its core, Prosthesis is a celebration of the age old human pursuit of skill and physical mastery,” Tippett explains. “It’s intentionally a 100 percent human-controlled machine with no autonomy.”

A close-up of the Furrion Robotics robot suit © Furrion Robotics

Weighing in at a whopping 3,800 kg (8,300 lbs) and powered by a 96 volt Furrion lithium ion battery pack, Prosthesis is no shrinking violet. Today it has a run time of anywhere between 30 and 120 minutes and Tippett, perhaps unsurprisingly, names “size, power and control” as some of the most challenging aspects of development.

“Simply lifting and assembling the massive parts of the machine pushed the team and the lab to its limit. It almost didn’t fit out the door!”

Although keeping the weight down and efficiency high is an exciting focus for future development, Tippett says most critical was achieving smooth, responsive and stable amplification of the pilot’s movements while they’re hurled around inside the machine.

“After 10 years of R&D, a unique, elegant, large-scale exo-bionic control system was developed that allowed test pilots to control the Alpha Leg with their left arm while sitting on top of it and riding it like a mechanical bull. That system will be fitted to the pilot’s whole body to control the four legs of Prosthesis.”

There’s no doubt Prosthesis is a very cool machine, but the whole idea is to create a sport and with the World Future Sports Games fast approaching, it’s a race to the finish line in more ways than one.

“We feel this is a sport whose time has come,” Fidler says. “People have been dreaming of large-scale, high performance exo-bionic machines for decades and we’re excited to have the first real one.”

“First it will be time trials. If we make it to Dubai this December, that will be the format. Prosthesis will continue to tour while we develop newer iterations, and we’ll be seeking top athletes to be pilots to go head to head as we grow the league.”

In terms of the relationship between pilot and mech, Fidler says this will be a bit like that of jockey and horse. Each mech will have its own temperament and strengths, much like its human pilot.

“There will be a learning curve. Some mechs will be faster on the flat, some better at climbing, some made to jump. Courses will be varied, ranging from tight stadium tracks to vast desert expanses. Anywhere you can race a car – and many places you can’t – you can race a mech.”