Hardiman was the first attempt to build a practical powered exoskeleton, by General Electric between 1965 and 1971.

[1][2] The machine was intended to allow the wearer to lift loads of 1500 pounds (680 kg) with ease.

[2] The project was led by the engineer Ralph Mosher, who had previously worked on the Handyman.

Mosher wrote of these difficulties in designing a powerful machine functioning as an extension of the human body, noting that a machine lacking the ability to receive and interpret force feedback would be very likely to cause the machine to destroy whatever object it was interacting with in performing the task at hand.

Without getting all the components to work together the practical uses for the Hardiman project were limited.