Edgerun launches a 10-pound hip exoskeleton tested with Ukrainian soldiers
David Venegas says the YC-backed system cuts metabolic effort by 30% to 45%, runs 12 hours and has completed 100-plus field tests since May.
By Ryan Merket · Published
Primary source: X
Why it matters
Edgerun is testing whether lighter robotics components can revive a military exoskeleton category repeatedly defeated by weight, endurance and field reliability.
David Venegas (@davidvenegas) launched Edgerun Industries on August 25th with a powered hip exoskeleton designed to reduce the physical effort required of soldiers carrying combat loads.
https://x.com/davidvenegas/status/2092364282629640512
The Palo Alto robotics manufacturer says its first system weighs less than 10 pounds with batteries and provides powered assistance as the wearer walks. Venegas described the mission more bluntly in a launch thread on X: make soldiers "tougher, stronger, and harder to kill."
Venegas is Edgerun's founder and CEO. His Y Combinator profile describes him as a "pro-human expansionist," a phrase that captures the larger ambition behind what could otherwise look like a tightly scoped piece of defense hardware. Edgerun is using soldiers as the first market for a broader line of equipment intended to extend human performance in hostile environments.
Assistance at the hip
Edgerun's bilateral system sits at the waist, monitors the wearer's gait and applies torque when the hip moves forward. The hip is the focus because, according to Edgerun, it generates roughly 60% of the force used in loaded walking, giving the system a favorable ratio between assistance and weight.
Edgerun claims the exoskeleton reduces the metabolic cost of carrying a combat load by 30% to 45%. Edgerun also says the hardware can be put on in five seconds, removed in one and operated for more than 12 hours using swappable drone-class batteries.
Those performance figures come from Edgerun's launch materials. The system uses quasi-direct-drive actuators, composite structures and a CAN bus rather than components developed solely for Edgerun. Venegas argues that recent improvements in compact actuators and battery cells have finally made a useful military exoskeleton light enough to carry.
Weight has defeated military exoskeleton programs for decades. Any machine that saves a soldier energy must first compensate for its own structure, motors and batteries, then survive dirt, impacts, weather and long missions without restricting movement.
The load problem itself is established. A U.S. Army field manual says a conditioned soldier's fighting load should not exceed 48 pounds and warns that added weight reduces agility and drains energy needed during contact with an enemy. Army research has put typical three-day mission loads at roughly 96 to 140 pounds.
The Army has continued pursuing narrower systems instead of an Iron Man-style suit. Its SABER program, developed with Vanderbilt University, produced a three-pound unpowered exosuit intended to reduce back strain during lifting and logistics work. More than 100 soldiers participated in early tests, according to an Army account of the program.
Edgerun is making a different bet: active assistance for walking under load, packaged around the hips rather than the full body.
A Kyiv testing loop
Edgerun says it has conducted more than 100 field tests with Ukrainian operators since May through a Kyiv office. The testers have included personnel from infantry, special operations and National Guard units, according to Edgerun.
Ukraine gives Edgerun access to users operating under the equipment, terrain and operational pressures the product is meant to address. It also shortens the feedback loop between a failure in the field and the next hardware revision, a central advantage for defense manufacturers that can maintain engineers near the end user.
Edgerun identifies Ukrainian armor manufacturer Balistyka as an integration partner. The work is intended to ensure that the exoskeleton fits around body armor, load-bearing equipment and the other gear soldiers already wear. That integration problem matters: even effective assistance becomes unusable if straps, batteries or actuators interfere with armor, weapons or rapid movement.
Y Combinator lists Edgerun in its Summer 2026 batch with eight employees. Edgerun is hiring in Palo Alto, where Venegas is building the engineering side while maintaining field development in Ukraine.
Defense is the entry market
Venegas' mission statement lays out a broader sequence. After load-bearing assistance, Edgerun intends to work on respiration, pressure and thermal-control equipment for use in mining, energy, construction, firefighting and rescue. Venegas ultimately sees those systems converging into life-support hardware for space.
That makes the military exoskeleton Edgerun's opening product and its proving ground. Soldiers carry heavy equipment through environments where fatigue has immediate consequences, giving Edgerun a demanding customer and a steady stream of performance data. The same strategy also gives Venegas a route into industrial and space markets without beginning with hardware that can only be tested during expensive launches.
Edgerun's near-term challenge is narrower: making powered assistance reliable enough that soldiers will accept another 10 pounds of equipment to carry everything else.