Darrell Musick of Eksobionics re Exoskeletons Talking Veterans with Ken Kraetzer

I interned at a spinal cord injury center for a while after I left the Army. We had an Ekso that we used on occasion, as well as another system (can't remember the name) that was being beta tested at our facility. They are pretty cool, but they have a long way to go. For starters, they take a little while to get set up correctly. The patient had to be carefully measured before the first time they use it. Before each use is takes a while to adjust everything. That's one of the reasons we didn't use it a whole lot. When you only have an hour long session you don't want to spend a good chunk of the time slot getting the equipment adjusted. We used mostly when it was specifically asked for or when a patient had back to back time slots. The battery life on them also isn't great at this time. They were fine for individual sessions (we had multiple batteries we could swap out, those things were huge), but it isn't set up for all day use or anything like that. They're also not great on terrain. Even steps or ramps could cause trouble. Some of the newer systems have improved upon these problems. They have also made it easier for the patient to don the system on their own, which is obviously a must for any at home systems. The older systems also often require a therapist to cue the legs with a remote (you can see it in her hand). The new systems are much better at "feeling" drive in the hip area, which then cues the automated leg drive. It will be interesting to see how much these machines will progress in 10 or even just 5 years.

Would be a neat device for wounded vets.