When we hear the word 'Exoskeleton' it is likely that a science fiction movie comes to our mind, where they are usually used for military purposes, however, it is a fact that the first to reach the market will be for medical and industrial purposes. For example Ford, whose employees are already using exoskeletons manufactured by the company Ekso Bionics to improve productivity and reduce muscle wasting. Another of the company's projects, such as the Exo GT, focuses on helping patients with motor disabilities.
The advances in robotics have shown to be a solution for the recovery and assistance of patients with motor disability problems, but thanks to these exoskeletons proposed by Ekso Bionics patients acquire strength, mobility, resistance and balance that they did not have before. In addition to this, these exoskeletons are connected through an IoT device in a collaboration with Vodafone which allows to monitor the use of the exoskeleton, the patient's condition, design exercises and everything in real time.
To meet demands for quality, efficiency and performance, companies around the world continue to integrate robotic technologies into their processes.
-Thomas Looby, president and CEO of Ekso Bionics.
The Ekso Vest is the result of a collaboration between Ford and Ekso Bionics, to create an exoskeleton that would allow workers to use a considerable improvement in performance as it supports and enhances the upper body to prevent muscle wasting when operating with arms up and avoid muscular tensions.
This exoskeleton helps to lift loads of up to 7 kilos without problems, preventing accidents due to fatigue or muscle wasting. There are even workers who perform the same series of movements about 4000 times per day, which add up to a million jobs per year that require mainly greater strength of the arms and torso.
My opinion is that exoskeletons in the future will be used more and more to treat motor disabilities, however, in the area of workers I do not think it will be very successful since it is very likely that it will be more effective and efficient to have a machine doing the work than a human with exoskeleton.
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Image source: Ekso Bionics.
