Anybody Can Buy This Exoskeleton For the Price of a Midrange Sedan

Here ’s thePhoenixexoskeleton , a 27 - hammer wearable robot that could help everyone from disabled veterinarian to kids get word how to trench their wheelchair and walk again on their own two feet . It cost $ 40,000 .

The Phoenix was design by the California - based robotics company suitX , which narrow in medical and industrial exoskeletons . The suit ’s based on enquiry from the robotics science lab at the University of California , Berkeley . And now it ’s finally being sold to the populace , albeit for a comparatively steep sum .

The exoskeleton attaches to the wearer ’s hips and legs . Using push button in the crutch , the user activate small motor in the orthodontic braces that facilitate move their leg ahead . Unlike other exoskeletons that are being design and prototyped in lab , this one is modularand can adjust to marvelous hoi polloi or nipper pretty easily . Phoenix ’s battery live on for four hours of continuous walk and hits a soap speed of 1.1 miles per hour . The patient ’s physical therapist can help the patient ascertain the suit ’s gait by tweaking parameter with an Android app .

This is all bang-up newsfor a few reason . Futuristic suit of clothes like the Phoenixstand to aid humansin all kinds of ways . In the war machine or in factories , powered exoskeletons can facilitate people move up 200 - pound gobs , likethis mean value devicefrom Lockheed Martin . Other time , exoskeleton ( like the Phoenix ) are used to aid patient role recover mobility they ’ve lost . Often clip these are bruise vets or stroke victims whose trauma left them paraplegic .

The troupe read that the Phoenix is mostly aimed at children with neurological status like cerebral palsy and spina bifida , who have a hard time walking — or might not be able to walk at all . This sounds great !

The exoskeleton still has some issues , though . The Phoenix is clean but it ’s not A-one light . Harvarddesigned a prototypethat could suit under the great unwashed ’s dress . And Phoenix is definitely not cheap . But it is useable for retail , out of the confines of a lab , and is now available to help veridical people who need it . And for those kinfolk , the independency they can reclaim is probably deserving the terms tag .

Starship Test 9