[Ivan Hernandez Dala] Exoskeleton let paralyzed walk
A $40,000 technological wonder
SuitX’s Phoenix exoskeleton weighs just 27 pounds is custom-fit to the user’s body and enables the movement to the paralyzed.
We mentioned in an earlier article about the development of this kind of structures as a way to enhance soldier’s capabilities in combat. It even worked as a futuristic resource in the film “Elysium” where the characters used this mechanical wonders to be more capable in warfare and manhunting.
Sharlto Copley as Kruger, Elysium. TriStar Pictures.
And as we`ve seen in many cases, reality is often drawn by fiction, in this case, we will see the medicine side of it, or -as it is referred- soft robotics. SuitX is the company behind the project “Phoenix”, an engineering progress for the people with reduced mobility.
Paralyzed from the waist down after a BMX accident, Steven Sanchez rolled into SuitX’s Berkeley, California, office in a wheelchair. A half-hour later he was standing and walking thanks to the Phoenix—a robotic exoskeleton now available for around $40,000.
“We can’t really fix their disease. We can’t fix their injury. But what it would do is postpone the secondary injuries due to sitting,” says SuitX founder and CEO Homayoon Kazerooni. “It gives a better quality of life.”
A battery is carried as a backpack and powers the exoskeleton for up to eight hours. An app can be used to track the patient’s walking data. SuitX has mainly worked with patients with spinal cord injuries, who can use the Phoenix to walk again.
It`s still a very pricy solution. But if we think about it, every piece of groundbreaking technology starts this way, as time passes it gets more popular and upgrades make them a lot more affordable to people.
The suit has earned many awards and the company looks forward other fields of use for their products, like reducing work injuries to a minimum in physical demanding jobs.
