Paraplegic student walks to graduation Wednesday, 10 February 2016

American robotics company suitX has released an exoskeleton to assist people with disabilities to walk by themselves.

Like industrial exoskeletons, the Phoenix is a wearable robot which can assist with movement, enhance strength and endurance. However, it has been designed in a modular way so users can tailor the suit to their intended activity.

It comprises a hip module, two knee modules and two feet modules. Users can independently put on and remove each component and it can be easily adjusted to fit different-sized users.

SuitX CEO Dr Homayoon Kazerooni is a professor of mechanical engineering at University of California, Berkeley. He previously founded Ekso Bionics in 2005 and been involved with numerous exoskeleton projects over the years, such as HULC, which has been used for military applications.

“We started suitX out of our passion to develop low-cost consumer bionic products to improve the quality of life for people around the world,” he said.

“We have tackled problems associated with design, human machine interface (HMI), actuation, power management, and control during the development of our medical exoskeletons.  We designed the Phoenix to be accessible and versatile so that it can be used by children.”

The children's version was recently shortlisted as a finalist in the Robotics for Good competition, an international competition run by the United Arab Emirates International Council on Artificial Intelligence and Robotics.

The Phoenix weighs just 12 kg, features a top speed of 0.5 m/s, a battery life of four hours continuous walking or eight hours of intermittent use, and gait parameters which can be tuned by a trained physical therapist through an Android app.

“Our products help the everyday person with a realistic price point and we focus on improving the human quality of life. The team has continuously innovated low cost exoskeleton systems that eventually allowed a paraplegic student to walk the podium for his graduation,” Dr. Kazerooni said.

 

Photo: suitX