Skyworth Group, best known for its televisions and home appliances, is incubating a wearable exoskeleton aimed at helping older people walk, IT Home reported on October 12, citing Leiphone. The product is designed to ease the load on the lower limbs when users walk, stand up from a seat or go up and down stairs.
According to the report, the exoskeleton team was incubated inside the group and sits within the innovation research institute of Shenzhen Skyworth Digital Technology. The product will not be sold under the Skyworth brand.
The project is still in testing. People familiar with the matter said it has gone through several internal iterations but has not entered mass production or been formally launched. They added that Skyworth began considering exoskeleton development about a year ago. No specifications, pricing or launch timing have been disclosed.
The move stands out because Skyworth founder Wong Wang-sang has been openly skeptical of humanoid robots. At the company's customer conference and product launch in March 2026, he said Skyworth was not working on humanoid robots and that expecting them to take older people for walks or carry things for them was not very realistic. The report suggested that incubating the exoskeleton internally and keeping it away from the main brand may reflect that cautious stance.
A walking-assistance exoskeleton offers a narrower target. Instead of a general-purpose machine that must perceive and act in a home, it is a wearable device that supports a person's own movement, a problem that is easier to define and test.
Exoskeletons are already appearing in everyday settings in China. Scenic areas including Mount Huangshan, Mount Tai and Mount Hua have deployed them to help visitors climb, and some communities have started pilots in elderly care to help people with limited mobility walk on their own. Beyond elderly assistance, the technology is used in industrial work and emergency rescue.
For a consumer electronics company with deep retail and after-sales networks, a mobility aid for an aging population is a logical adjacent product. How far the project goes will depend on what the current tests show.
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