It’s about his struggle with depression. A struggle which, thanks to the suit – and his mum - he’s now winning. Alan Gu and his exoskeleton. Credit:Eddie Jim Most of all, this story is about the importance of holding tight to your dream. Even when your parents don’t believe in it. “I don’t think Dad’s ever going to be keen on me working on this,” says Alan. “Maybe, when I’m finished, he might be impressed. Maybe.”

Because things are still a little tense with his parents, Alan arranges to meet at a park near his house. The exoskeleton arrives in the boot of his green Toyota Camry. Alan built this suit when he was in year 11, partly because a schoolfriend challenged him to. And also because exoskeletons – powered suits designed to make the wearer dramatically stronger, most notably worn by Robert Downey Jr. in Iron Man - are really really cool. “My friends and I did some brainstorming,” says Alan, as he sits on the lip of his car boot to start strapping the suit on, “and realised it really might be possible.” The exoskeleton in the boot of Alan's Camry. Credit:Eddie Jim

And there was a third reason, although Alan's never told anyone before. “My dad’s a builder. There is a lot of manual labour. So I thought [the suit] might help with that. But I never told him that – I didn't have the guts to.” Once he realised it could be done, Alan quickly became obsessed with the project, spending his school holidays drawing up blueprints. But to build the suit, Alan knew he’d need his father’s tools. And his permission. Alan’s family are Chinese migrants. Alan came to Australia when he was four. His strict parents put a big emphasis on schoolwork. They had their own blueprint: Alan was going to do well at school and then study medicine.

“It’s all studying and tutoring and housework. It’s pretty much what you would expect,” Alan says. “From the beginning, I knew it wasn’t going to be easy convincing them.” Credit:Eddie Jim He was right. His parents were sceptical. But it was school holidays and Alan’s marks were good. So they let him start to turn his blueprints into a reality. Then school started back. His friends were busy studying for the looming midyear exams. Alan was spending all his time trying to work out how to bring his exoskeleton to life.

Hydraulics at each joint would be best but were too expensive. But you could buy electrical actuators on the internet for a reasonable price, Alan discovered. He ordered 16, enough for each main joint on the exoskeleton. Each is rated to 300 newtons, which is roughly 30 kilograms of pushing power per joint. When the suit is finished, Alan estimates it could boost his lifting ability by up to 60 kilograms. Everything was paid for out of years of saved pocket money. The electric actuators supply 300 newtons of force each. Credit:Eddie Jim The actuators are riveted and bolted to metal tubes Alan bought from Bunnings. The joints rotate on bolts attached to the frame. “They are placeholders. It’s really janky,” says Alan, as he uses blue tie-down straps and black velcro to secure the suit’s arms to his own. To make a human stronger, an exoskeleton needs to mimic the movements of its wearer.

Alan says he accomplished this using electromyography sensors which detect electrical signals from moving muscles - although the suit is currently unfinished and not working. The EMG sensor data is fed into an microcontroller which moves the actuators. Power comes from a pair of lithium polymer batteries affixed to the hips. The suit was coming to life. But Alan’s marks at school were falling. Alan, sitting on his green Toyota Camry. Credit:Eddie Jim “My parents began to get more and more opposed to the project. Eventually they wanted me to stop robotics altogether,” he says. “They tried to force me out of robotics entirely. Eventually, it just became a case of I just did not want to work on it at home any more. Because, well, if I tried to work on it they’d just make me miserable.”

His mother Hui Lin Xu says she worried what her son was doing was “too unbelievable”. “It was too much for him. VCE was coming. It might be too big for him. I did worry that it took him away from his schoolwork.” “I don’t think Dad’s ever going to be keen on me working on this,” says Alan. “Maybe, when I’m finished, he might be impressed. Maybe.” Credit:Eddie Jim Unwilling to keep warring with his parents, Alan gave up. The unfinished suit went into a cardboard box. And Alan fell into a dark period.

“Good intentions, you know”, he says. “But it’s like, you find one thing you really like, robotics, and your parents get you out of it. It wasn’t nice.” Alan finished school with good marks and enrolled in science at the University of Melbourne. But his life was still dark, he says. He wasn’t doing what he wanted. His relationship with his parents became strained. Eventually, Alan realised he needed to get help. He saw a psychologist, who told the young man he had depression. Together they traced it back to giving up his dream of finishing the suit. Maybe you should get it back out, the psychologist suggested. He would talk to Alan’s mum for him. And his mum understood. “It was probably because his father and I, maybe we did not show enough support for this,” Hui Lin says.

With her support, Alan dug through the house and found the old suit. Some parts were no longer working. The computer was damaged, and Alan needs to redo the code to get it up and running again. The EMG sensors need to be wired back in. "Things are getting better,” he says. Credit:Eddie Jim But Alan is working on it again. This time he’s determined to finish it. And he’s now majoring in biomedical engineering, much closer to his true love - robotics. Mum sees the change. “He’s happier now,” she says. “I am happy to see him moving forward. To do something he thinks meaningful to him.”