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Consumer-Grade Robotic Exoskeletons To Hit Market This Year:

The company began its evolution in 2005 with the ExoHiker, an exoskeleton that allows able-bodied people to carry 90 kg (about 200 pounds) with minimal exertion. The company’s engineers at first thought it would take 5 kilowatts to power such an exoskeleton, which would have meant bulky batteries and motors. The breakthrough was a redistribution of weight that reduced the power requirements by three orders of magnitude.

A later system, the load-carrying HULC (Human Universal Load Carrier), was licensed to Lockheed Martin Corp. for military development in 2009, and Ekso Bionics’ engineers began looking for a new direction. Their energy-efficient devices, they realized, left them with a “power budget” that could be spent on moving the user’s legs. That’s when paraplegic people became the company’s target customers.

A few other companies around the world are bringing out exoskeletons for people with disabilities, but Ekso Bionics’ push in 2012 may give it a market advantage. Ten top U.S. rehab clinics have already signed up for the first batch of production units. One of the first devices will go to Mount Sinai Hospital, in New York City, where Kristjan T. Ragnarsson, chairman of the department of rehabilitation medicine, has treated spinal cord patients for 40 years.

His patients’ priorities have never changed. “The first thing they want to know is whether they will walk again,” says Ragnarsson. “As their physician, I always have to address that question.”

(via Good-bye, Wheelchair, Hello Exoskeleton - IEEE Spectrum)