Last year, over 180,000 people descended on Las Vegas in January to attend CES. The annual convention has reached new peaks in attendance every year, with more companies and startups vying for show floor space. With so many companies showing off their goods, it's tough to sift through thousands of booths. Since its highly competitive, you either have to have a great product or service, command a large amount of floor space, or have something unique and outlandish that it will force people to stop and have a look. The latter option is what Furrion decided on, perching an enormous mech in the corner of its booth to greet CES guests.
While this was certainly impressive and many passing by were awestruck, Furrion isn't a name that often pops up in the media, despite it having an impressive portfolio of products and services. When you navigate to its website, you'll find that the site is quite intricate, as it looks like the company dabbles in a little bit of everything. The firm was started in 2004 by three founders with the goal of making the future perfect. That's quite a broad and bold statement, but since that time, it has produced high-end appliances, products for vehicles, and also has its own robotics division.
According to the firm,
"Furrion Robotics is a research initiative focused on the development of large scale, high-performance exo-bionic technology. We are pioneering a new breed of human piloted, electric powered mechs. Our robotics center represents the inception of a new, large scale exo-bionic technology platform. We believe that the future belongs to electric power systems and we are committed to being leaders in the development and application of that technology."
The Furrion Prothesis is an off-road racing mech that isn't meant for work, but instead, is envisioned as a component in a new kind of sporting event that will take place in the future. It will be piloted by a human and will run on electricity.
While you can see it working in the video above, the movements aren't actually all that graceful. But, it's a start and according to Furrion, there will one day be an entire fleet that will participate in the X1 Mech Racing League. For now, it is an idea that is coming soon, so you can consider this a preview of what's to come.
Neowin is at CES to bring you all the coverage from the show floor, click here for other articles.
7 Comments - Add comment