Technology Overview
Wearable Walking Assistive Exoskeleton Robot (2WA–EXO).
ITRI’s Wearable Walking Assistive Exoskeleton Robot helps SCI (spinal cord injury) patients to regain fundamental abilities such as standing, sitting, walking on flat surfaces, walking up and downstairs, and walking on slopes through power assistance. Based on clinical trials, the patient’s walking speed can be increased from 5 to 45 cm/s with the assistive device.
Applications & Benefits
The robot was designed particularly for Asian body types. The first generation was built in 2013, and won an R&D 100 Award in 2016. In addition, it was one of the feature stories in the Discovery TV program Taiwan Revealed: Medical Elite. With the maturity of the Wearable Walking Assistive Exoskeleton Robot, the development team spun off as a startup, “FREE Bionics”, in February 2017; they are expecting to launch the robot in 2018.