IPFS News Link • Health and Physical Fitness
Video: New Military-Inspired Robotic Exoskeleton Unveiled, Could Help Paraplegics Walk Again
• Rebecca Boyle via PopSci.comThe eLegs system can remove the persistent presence of the word “no” — a word with which paraplegics have become all too familiar, according to the Berkeley Bionics project’s CEO, a man named Eythor Bender.
“I think we are demonstrating here that there is no such word,” he says, in a particularly dramatic press video. His heavily accented English lends an air of X-Men-esque mystique to the project.
In the video below, tester Amanda Boxtel, who has been a paraplegic since suffering a spinal injury in 1992, explains the surreal experience of walking again: “To take my first steps in the eLEGS was just astounding, because I bent my knee for the first time in 18 years, and I placed my heel on the ground, and then I transferred my weight,” she says. “It was so natural, and that was what really gripped me.”
Patients with spinal cord injuries could use the device to re-learn how to walk while they still have the muscle memory to do it, she says.
It can be adjusted for anyone between 5’2” and 6’4” tall and up to 220 pounds, according to Berkeley Bionics. Users can attach and remove the legs within a couple minutes. The system will be shipped to “select” rehabilitation facilities early next year so more patients can start using it.