LG’s vision for the workplace of the future involves a whole bunch of workers dressed up in robot pants. 

The Korean tech giant will unveil the latest addition to its CLOi robotics range at IFA in Berlin this month, showing off what it’s calling its first ever ‘human-centric wearable robot.’

The CLOi SuitBot is a robotic exoskeleton designed to ‘support and enhance a user’s legs’, giving people like factory workers and people doing heavy lifting or operating heavy tools greater strength and mobility.

It’s not the first exoskeleton we’ve seen that purports to give humans superhuman strength. Hyundai and Japanese company Cyberdyne have both shown off medical exoskeletons designed to assist people with low mobility, while Ford is also working on a design that reduces strain for workers doing over-head tasks.

For its part, LG says the CLOi SuitBot (which was built in partnership with Korean company SG Robotics) was designed with a ‘comfortable fit and naturally rotating joints’ so it’s easy to move around in whether you’re walking, standing or working for long periods. The SuitBot also has built-in ‘sandal-type’ shoes, which LG says automatically adjust so the wearer can get in and out of the wearable robot more easily.

The wearable robot is part of LG’s CLOi range of service robots, which we first saw at CES this year. LG also says the SuitBot will connect to these other CLOi robots to form part of a ‘smart working network.’ Think workers in SuitBots that communicate with porter robots and cleaning robots.

There’s no word on price or when the SuitBot will be commercially available. It might not be the kind of thing you’ll buy for Christmas, but it could be saving your back when you’re working in a robot factory in the future.