Video of the exoskeleton in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yBfUcFRZ-I
Father builds exoskeleton to help wheelchair-bound son walk
11–20 of 200 posts
Re: Father builds exoskeleton to help wheelchair-bound son walk
#12This is kind of dangerous. Something like this that is not tested can pretty much kill you if it fails in anyway. You’ll just fall to the ground from about 5 ft, which is often enough to do something bad to your skull.
You're not wrong, but if you had some of the tech from the Boston Dynamics robots, you could imagine something smart enough to either retain balance in the first place, or take a forward/backward roll to prevent a more serious injury.
The Father here has done a fantastic job, I'm sure his son is thrilled to be able to take some steps -- also the low-tech tether from above solves the falling problem for the moment which presumably lets him get on with solving other issues.
Well done Dad!
Re: Father builds exoskeleton to help wheelchair-bound son walk
#13This is kind of dangerous. Something like this that is not tested can pretty much kill you if it fails in anyway. You’ll just fall to the ground from about 5 ft, which is often enough to do something bad to your skull.
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Re: Father builds exoskeleton to help wheelchair-bound son walk
#14This is kind of dangerous. Something like this that is not tested can pretty much kill you if it fails in anyway. You’ll just fall to the ground from about 5 ft, which is often enough to do something bad to your skull.
Cars are dangerous yet they're ubiquitous. Risk vs reward I guess
Re: Father builds exoskeleton to help wheelchair-bound son walk
#15I've been making my own, purely as a pipe-dream to have some hope of walking again, it's not easy but I'm hoping it'll be a better fit than consumer ones, and probably cheaper. I feel like we've made leaps and bounds in prosthetics this past decade but orthotics and exoskeletons haven't been following the trend for some reason. As an engineer I imagine there are some significant design constraints that make it hard b…
I worked in a logistics operation that explored exoskeleton options deeply in 2019. Options were shockingly limited and the best products were not powered in any way - essentially just frames to bolster your body mechanically. Compare to the massive, extremely precise, and power-efficient automated storage and retrieval systems and it just seemed like stone age tech. My takeaway was that powered exoskeleton tech must be vastly more difficult to implement than I'd expected. The financial incentives are there for warehouse and logistics applications, but the tech just isn't.
Re: Father builds exoskeleton to help wheelchair-bound son walk
#16This is kind of dangerous. Something like this that is not tested can pretty much kill you if it fails in anyway. You’ll just fall to the ground from about 5 ft, which is often enough to do something bad to your skull.
The medical device industry in France is heavily regulated and products are audited before they reach the market so you can be sure it's a risk that's been identified and remediated.
Yeah, I think the OP was really talking about this individual case.
Eg, this guy put his kid in a device that could kill him (maybe).
Looking back at the videos from Boston Dynamics, a ton of effort is put in to the failure mode testing. I highly doubt 1) this is dynamic, 2) failure modes were considered much.
Re: Father builds exoskeleton to help wheelchair-bound son walk
#17One of my favorite movies "Edge of Tomorrow" has dope exoskeletons, and while its a movie - thats where this is heading...
I am surprised Boston Dynamics hasnt made one! If you converted the agility of Atlas into an exoskeleton, that would be pretty interesting...
Re: Father builds exoskeleton to help wheelchair-bound son walk
#18This is kind of dangerous. Something like this that is not tested can pretty much kill you if it fails in anyway. You’ll just fall to the ground from about 5 ft, which is often enough to do something bad to your skull.
What if it falls into a pushup stance? In my fitter years, I could dead drop straight into a pushup.
Re: Father builds exoskeleton to help wheelchair-bound son walk
#19This is inspiring. The cost can be brought down through use of soft and/or lightweight materials. For example, the use of textile based actuators. Good examples in link below:
https://biodesign.seas.harvard.edu/soft-exosuits
These things are not for the near term so really impressed by this story.
Re: Father builds exoskeleton to help wheelchair-bound son walk
#20I've been making my own, purely as a pipe-dream to have some hope of walking again, it's not easy but I'm hoping it'll be a better fit than consumer ones, and probably cheaper. I feel like we've made leaps and bounds in prosthetics this past decade but orthotics and exoskeletons haven't been following the trend for some reason. As an engineer I imagine there are some significant design constraints that make it hard b…
I've always wanted to make one that fits like spandex and uses things that mimic anatomical function, like nitinol wires to mimic muscle.