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Father builds exoskeleton to help wheelchair-bound son walk

reuters.com

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Re: Father builds exoskeleton to help wheelchair-bound son walk

#101

Post by anonymousDan »

the_lonely_road wrote: post #31
ad404b8a372f2b9 wrote: post #3

I'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…

My understanding is its the same thing limiting everything else. Power. Batteries more specifically. We just don't have a way to power anything for very long that doesn't have a cable attached to a wall attached to a power station. Honestly the ability for humans (and other living creatures) to just DO SO MUCH on just a little bio mass each day is astounding.

I'm sure this has already been thought of but is there much value in using capacitors to capture kinetic energy from the exoskeletons natural movement?

Re: Father builds exoskeleton to help wheelchair-bound son walk

#102

Post by londev »

nine_k wrote: post #96
chime wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So, from their perspective, a wheelchair and some pain meds can do the job easily. And not even a good wheelchair. For my wife recently diagnosed with MS, they would only approve of a basic, featureless, uncomfortable one after I would pay the $3000 deductible plus 20% coinsurance. Instead, I got a light-weight folding electric wheelchair with nearly full-day worth of battery (15 miles), with a spare battery, adjus…

Great thing it works this way for mechanical tech. For chemicals, that is, medicines, paying out of pocket is not impossible, but much harder. The $1500 you invested will likely last a number of years. Or it might be a month worth of prescription drugs; cheap generics do not exist for everything (and may sometimes be inferior). I don't know a good way out of it. The U.S. medical insurance system sucks, but my friends…

I’ve only managed to get more advanced treatment in the UK (still nothing ground breaking) by having private medical cover in addition to the national health care. Thankfully as the national health service covers all the basic care it’s possible to get private cover for around £40 per month.

Re: Father builds exoskeleton to help wheelchair-bound son walk

#103

Post by asoneth »

sli wrote: post #89
sillysaurusx wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Talk about impactful work. I wonder how many lives you've changed. Well done. This is something close to miracle tech, at least for the people wearing it. I can't help but feel curious whether they're a viable alternative to wheelchairs, or if it's a temporary feeling (kind of like riding on a rollercoaster, in that you go and do it for the experience and then return to your normal life). But that's just my ignorance…

> Talk about impactful work. I wonder how many lives you've changed. $1000/mo for a rental. People without insurance need not apply.

$1k a month seems downright cheap compared to many medical treatments.

Hospital visits in the US average $11.7k for a full stay[1]. Antiviral treatments for Hepatitis C like Harvoni and Sovaldi cost $16k-90k for 12 weeks, though you can go with a generic version for $5k-10k a month.

[1] https://www.debt.org/medical/hospital-surgery-costs/

Re: Father builds exoskeleton to help wheelchair-bound son walk

#104

Post by CTmystery »

nemo44x wrote: post #81

In today's culture wouldn't this be considered "ableist"? Aren't we internalizing the idea of being "disabled" to this kid and thus dehumanizing him by building a machine that "corrects" his inability to walk? I've seen similar arguments from the deaf community about hearing restoration as "correcting" something when nothing is "wrong". FWIW I think this invention is awesome.

Are you genuinely curious or do you have an axe to grind? Have you seen anyone accuse such an invention as ableist? This is exactly what new technology is supposed to do: make things possible that were previously difficult or impossible. I don't see how any of the culture wars in vogue have anything to do with it.

Re: Father builds exoskeleton to help wheelchair-bound son walk

#105

Post by sillysaurusx »

fencepost wrote: post #100
sillysaurusx wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Talk about impactful work. I wonder how many lives you've changed. Well done. This is something close to miracle tech, at least for the people wearing it. I can't help but feel curious whether they're a viable alternative to wheelchairs, or if it's a temporary feeling (kind of like riding on a rollercoaster, in that you go and do it for the experience and then return to your normal life). But that's just my ignorance…

I used to be on that. I can't afford it because no insurance If/when anyone runs into this regarding medications, be aware that even without insurance many pharmacies (at least in chains) have significant lists of medications available at very little or no charge. Companies like GoodRX can also lead to much lower prices, particularly on generics. Meijer has free antibiotics and prenatal vitamins. Walmart has a variet…

Thank you! I'm actually going to forward this over to her. This is super helpful.

Re: Father builds exoskeleton to help wheelchair-bound son walk

#106

Post by nradov »

jandrese wrote: post #80
manmeet wrote: post #63

This is amazing. I built one to help my nephew walk, and now selling commercially ( http://trexorobotics.com ) I am fed-up at the lack of options available to individuals. People thought that everyone will get an exoskeleton and be able to walk with it everywhere. But the industry ran into many challenges. A big one that many dont understand is getting insurance coverage. The way the US healthcare system is designed,…

I had thought when the Segway came out that a wheelchair version would follow shortly afterward where a person without functional legs could get on a saddle and move around quickly and at a typical human height so things on shelves aren't such a problem. Segway hit the market 20 years ago and it still has not happened. I get that there are a number of complications (getting on and off is a challenge), but it seems li…

The wheelchair version actually came out before the Segway.

https://news.yahoo.com/the-i-bot-a-mission-to-revolutionize-...

Re: Father builds exoskeleton to help wheelchair-bound son walk

#107

Post by jeffreygoesto »

jandrese wrote: post #80
manmeet wrote: post #63

This is amazing. I built one to help my nephew walk, and now selling commercially ( http://trexorobotics.com ) I am fed-up at the lack of options available to individuals. People thought that everyone will get an exoskeleton and be able to walk with it everywhere. But the industry ran into many challenges. A big one that many dont understand is getting insurance coverage. The way the US healthcare system is designed,…

I had thought when the Segway came out that a wheelchair version would follow shortly afterward where a person without functional legs could get on a saddle and move around quickly and at a typical human height so things on shelves aren't such a problem. Segway hit the market 20 years ago and it still has not happened. I get that there are a number of complications (getting on and off is a challenge), but it seems li…

From my own (admittedly limited) experience with riding a Segway and my own (day to day) experience with a child that can't sit, stand or walk, I would guess that it is a) difficult to get in and out and b) difficult to balance and steer.

Extra mechanical stabilizers are in the way when you finally are on/in and without the Segway was really stubborn and threw me and others off in the beginning. A person without proper sense and ability to balance, will have big problems getting onto it and off again with just the gyros running. Also balancing is a really difficult thing to do if you have the problems that forced you in a wheelchair in the first place.

For people who are ok with the upper part of the body, and can lift themselves onto the machine, you might be right though. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a "used Segway" market that is cheap enough to attract hackers trying out new things with them.

Re: Father builds exoskeleton to help wheelchair-bound son walk

#108

Post by nradov »

optymizer wrote: post #83
manmeet wrote: post #63

This is amazing. I built one to help my nephew walk, and now selling commercially ( http://trexorobotics.com ) I am fed-up at the lack of options available to individuals. People thought that everyone will get an exoskeleton and be able to walk with it everywhere. But the industry ran into many challenges. A big one that many dont understand is getting insurance coverage. The way the US healthcare system is designed,…

I was looking at the videos, and realized that maybe we don't need small exo-bones (societal expectations and normalcy aside), maybe it's easier to go the other way and make exo-robots, since they'd be bigger with more room for batteries, could balance on their own and a human could be sitting/standing inside, driving the legs with some input method - either with legs, or hand gestures. I'm picturing the robot in Ava…

Anything wider than 32in won't fit through many doors.

Re: Father builds exoskeleton to help wheelchair-bound son walk

#109

Post by nemo44x »

MitPitt wrote: post #91
nemo44x wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think so, and I think that's sort of a different thing. I believe the original ideas around this go back to when a child is born with ambiguous sex organs. Parents and doctors would then choose to "correct" the issue to ensure the baby is either a boy or a girl, when in actuality it may have chromosome's that are not XX or XY. So then this (which is actually a really interesting debate) has cascaded into the…

If by adapting (for example) blind people into society they mean writing in braille everywhere and so on, then it's the same as if correcting their disability. An exo-exo-skeleton, extended to the whole society. So it's just demagoguery.

I think the analogy would be if they could make them see again.

Re: Father builds exoskeleton to help wheelchair-bound son walk

#110

Post by nemo44x »

CTmystery wrote: post #104
nemo44x wrote: post #81

In today's culture wouldn't this be considered "ableist"? Aren't we internalizing the idea of being "disabled" to this kid and thus dehumanizing him by building a machine that "corrects" his inability to walk? I've seen similar arguments from the deaf community about hearing restoration as "correcting" something when nothing is "wrong". FWIW I think this invention is awesome.

Are you genuinely curious or do you have an axe to grind? Have you seen anyone accuse such an invention as ableist? This is exactly what new technology is supposed to do: make things possible that were previously difficult or impossible. I don't see how any of the culture wars in vogue have anything to do with it.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/science-and-philosop...
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