How to Build a Functional Exoskeleton

For engineers with design ideas, the gap between concept and execution is where most ideas fail. For independent builders and Makers without formal training, that gap is even wider. Design decisions carry immediate consequences: Weight, force, motion, and controllability all interact in ways that are difficult to predict without a structured design process.

Tyler Csatari has a lot of fun operating in that gap. A content creator with over 4 million followers across TikTok (3M+), Instagram (900K+), and Facebook (250K+), Csatari focuses on challenge-based mechanical fabrication builds, or designing and building systems he has never attempted before. His goal, beyond replicating appearances, is to create functional systems, what he calls practical cosplay, where the mechanics work as intended.

Csatari notes, “I like projects that sound difficult. You learn so much.” That mindset of starting without complete knowledge and solving forward set the foundation for his most complex build—an exoskeleton.

Csatari’s exoskeleton design required four independently controlled arms that move fluidly while maintaining structural integrity. Each arm needed to extend outward, carry its own weight, and react to inputs without collapsing under load. Csatari notes, “The challenge is torque. The farther an arm reaches, the more force the base needs to support it.”

The exoskeleton development also required it to be wearable, yet motors at every joint would increase weight and complexity, creating new failure points. Therefore, the design needed to balance force transmission, weight distribution, and controllability within a constrained form factor.

Csatari addressed these constraints through a cable-driven system modeled entirely in SOLIDWORKS Design®. He routed Kevlar cables through a chain of 3D-printed vertebrae connected to motors mounted on a backplate instead of placing motors at each joint.

Each arm operates along three controlled cables, allowing multi-axis motion while minimizing weight. The pulley-based architecture distributes force more efficiently, reducing the load required at the base while maintaining range of motion. Flexion, kinematics, and durability had to be considered for this wearable device and its parts.

Csatari modeled each component digitally before printing, including hinge geometries, bearing interfaces, and mounting structures. This enabled him to refine motion behavior and structural relationships before fabrication.

Csatari prefers SOLIDWORKS for several reasons: “It was more accessible. You could work offline, work online. There's so many different tools, so it just kind of seemed like the right fit.”

He also enthuses, “The ability [of SOLIDWORKS] to sculpt a shape of what you can imagine in your head is the quickest path ever from the ideation to the actual result of what you want.”

From Concept to Working System

Using SOLIDWORKS enabled Csatari to maintain a disciplined workflow where design decisions in the exoskeleton development were resolved digitally rather than physically. Instead of iterating numerous prototypes, Csatari validated structural concepts, motion paths, and component relationships in the CAD model before committing to physical builds.

Csatari adds, “I began [the exoskeleton project] when I started to get really good at SOLIDWORKS. I discovered lots of features that make designing 10 times faster, 10 times easier.”

This approach throughout the design process reduced rework and enabled him to manage system complexity across multiple interacting mechanisms and subsystems. The cable-driven design particularly demonstrates how modeling informed the non-obvious solution of achieving controlled motion without excessive hardware in the final mechanical structure.

The workflow also accelerated development. Csatari notes that thanks to SOLIDWORKS, designs that once felt overwhelming could be executed rapidly once modeled. The model itself became the foundation of the project, defining geometry, behavior, and assembly logic before any part was materially produced.

Digital Design Foundation

Csatari’s project demonstrates that when design issues are resolved digitally upstream, execution becomes much more predictable. SOLIDWORKS supports that shift by enabling builders and Makers to define, test, and refine complex mechanical systems before fabrication begins.

The virtual‑prototype in SOLIDWORKS enables users to quickly explore design alternatives and recognize good and bad ideas sooner, which accelerates innovation. Features such as interference checking and the ability to simulate motion to avoid collisions helped Csatari turn his ideas into reality faster and more efficiently.

SOLIDWORKS can improve the likelihood that your ideas will translate into functional and desirable hardware on your first build.