Moonwalkers are designed by Pittsburgh-based Shift Robotics. Image Courtesy: @shiftrobotics/Instagram
‘These boots were meant for walking and that’s just what they’ll do’ sang Nancy Sinatra years ago. Now, an American start-up based in Pittsburgh is taking the song quite literally and designed shoes, called the Moonwalker, which will allow a user to walk 250 per cent faster than before.
Developed by Xunjie Zhang, the CEO and founder of Shift Robotics, the Moonwalker are battery-powered sneakers that look like skates but are powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) and an algorithm that the company says helps the wearers walk normally without any hand control.
“Moonwalkers are not skates. They’re shoes. The world’s fastest shoes actually,” said Xunjie Zhang, in a release published on the company’s website last week. “You don’t skate in them. You walk. You don’t have to learn how to use them, the shoes learn from you,” the founder further said.
Here’s what we know about the Moonwalkers and how they will help wearers achieve the top speed of 11 km/hour.
Walk the walk
According to the company’s website, the Moonwalkers are supposedly easy to use, with wearers having to just strap them on to their feet to enjoy a considerable boost in speed.
Each pair of shoes, which resemble roller-skates, feature a 300-watt electric motor that powers a set of eight polyurethane wheels.
Sensors monitor the user’s walking gait while algorithms automatically adjust the power of the motors to match, synchronised between each foot, so the added speed increases and decreases as the user walks faster or slower. A hinged toe section flexes the same way a shoe does, so the Moonwalkers feel more comfortable and natural to walk in.
The shoes have two modes, lock and shift – and they only move when you do. This means you can go up and down stairs, step into mass transit, and confidently wait at the crosswalk while the AI switches modes using an algorithm to adapt to your walking gait and environment.
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According to the company, one-and-a-half-hour charge of the battery is good for a range of approximately 6 miles (9.7 km), depending on factors such as walking speed and terrain.
The company also adds that the Moonwalker are meant for any terrain and are safe to use.
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The shoes, weighing 4.2 lbs or 1.9 kg each, went on sale from Monday on Kickstarter, and is expected to reach the market in March 2023 with a price tag of $1,400 (Rs 1.15 lakh).
Like all great inventions, the idea behind these shoes came from a near-death experience for founder Xunjie Zhang.
Zhang says that he almost got hit by a car while commuting to work in Pittsburgh and that’s what prompted him to come up with the idea — pack everything you find in an electric vehicle into a shoe, so that you can effortlessly walk at a running speed.
Other fastest shoes
Earlier, sportswear giant Nike was embroiled in a controversy over its VaporFly shoe that helped long-distance runners shatter previous records.
In 2020, the World Athletics finally gave its stamp of approval to the shoe that can improve marathon times by one-to-two minutes in elite athletes, amid claims that the footwear was similar to “technological doping”.
The Vaporflys, which were first introduced in 2016, work due to a combination of a new lightweight but hard foam, called Pebax, which is fused with a curved carbon plate to create a ‘spring’ effect that ensures far less energy is lost with each step.
Jake Riley, an American runner has described wearing the shoe as “like running on trampolines”.
One thing’s for sure when the Moonwalkers hit the market; we won’t be able to use the excuse of ‘running’ late.
With inputs from agencies
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