Earlier this week something incredible happened in NYC; a paralyzed man walked down the street. With the help of ReWalk Robitic’s newest exoskeleton Robert Woo, an architect who in 2007 was paralyzed by a worksite accident, was able to walk out of a building into the hustled flow of New Yorkers. The new ReWalk Personal 6.0 is a sizable step forward for exoskeletons. Exoskeletons can be used to give people super-human strength, but, much more importantly, can be used to restore movement to paralyzed individuals. ReWalk and Ekso Bionics are currently the market leaders in exoskeletons to help people walk, but ReWalk is the only to receive clearance for use outside of a clinical environment with medical supervision. Their new 6.0 model has seen tremendous advancement, both from a hardware and software perspective. The leg-braces have been slimmed down, support straps now more evenly distribute the weight, and the cumbersome backpack that had housed the processor has been scaled down to a large fannypack. On the software side, the exoskeleton, which is controlled via a watch, now performs better on steps, has a smoother and faster gait, and features improved stopping. The implications of exoskeleton technology for people with disabilities are profound and Woo credits the ReWalk technology for lifting him out of a deep depression.
