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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

#181

Post by zaarn »

moooo99 wrote: post #125
nine_k wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> Germany and Netherlands report that theirs is even worse at providing any remotely advanced treatment. It kind of depends on what you'd consider advanced treatment. I know a few people with chronic illnesses that are dependent on getting their (expensive) medications and they never had a problem with that. Besides the prescription fee of 5€ (not 100% sure on that one) they pay nothing out of their pocket. But I've…

Generally, getting a wheelchair or similar is a bit of a paper war with the insurance. Once you have it though, the barrier is lower to get a replacement or upgrades.

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

#182

Post by playpause »

mtwittman wrote: post #130

The research and engineering of new mobility aids is fine, but the inventor/CEO's quote, "Ten years from now, there will be no, or far fewer, wheelchairs" belies an attitude strongly criticized by many in the disability community. And in the video footage he says, "wheelchairs are an anomaly, men and women, human beings are meant to be upright". Imagine saying "Bicycles an anomaly—humans are meant to be upright, not…

He’s not deriding wheelchair tech. He’s saying wheelchair tech is not good enough, disabled people deserve better, and he’s doing something about it. I’m not convinced wheelchair users would be better off if he embraced the wheelchair-positive attitude that you are arguing for.

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

#183

Post by Diannarose »

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

#184

Post by CountDrewku »

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,…

>The way the US healthcare system is designed, it will only cover restoration of mobility, not a restoration of function.

You'll find that countries with socialized medicine won't cover more than that either. It's too expensive, regardless of whether your covered privately or publicly. Socialized medicine is typically much harsher on keeping costs down as well.

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

#185

Post by arpafaucon »

chris_va wrote: post #77

I am not a robotics expert, and I've always wanted to ask one... Why do these designs always have the actuators mounted directly at the joints? Why not have some high modulus yarn transfer the joint loads (ala a bike brake cable, say with high modulus aramid?)? One could keep the actuators near the center of mass (or a trolley that follows it around), and keep the suit fairly minimal.

Hey ! I am not a robotics expert, but I work at this company (Wandercraft) as software dev, so I know some of the reasons :) First of all I'd say that's because it simpler: we have so much to do that simplicity is a strong decision factor. That way you also reduce the number of moving parts, so maintenance is easier. On the software side you also get the marginal benefit that you keep a 1:1 mapping between joints and actuator (an example with coupled actuators: Cassie, from the Oregon State University). That way you can have different control strategies for the different joints.

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

#187

Post by a_conservative »

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.

I think these kinds of questions are very personal. I had a close family member who couldn't walk. She didn't make her inability to walk a part of her identity, it was just something annoying she had to put up with. I doubt she would have been upset about gaining the ability to walk.

The only time I've heard these types of questions are around people who are deaf. I suspect that the issue is a complex one of language and community. My understanding is that (some?) deaf people consider sign language their primary language, not the native tongue of their country.

It's too bad that the hn downvoters are hitting your post so hard, this could be a useful, informative discussion. It's hard to talk about this kind of thing without crossing political correctness boundaries though.

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

#188

Post by chime »

hutzlibu wrote: post #129
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…

Can you recommend the specific model of the wheelchair you ordered?

This is the one I bought (not affiliated with them): https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B082NN972S

I called up the seller to buy more spare batteries and they said the 2 batteries the chair comes with, are under warranty for 1 year. And they should last another 2-3 years easily even with heavy use. So there's no point in buying spares now since the spares will lose the ability to charge over the same time.

We have been out for 2-3 hours per trip many times this year and not once has even one battery run out.

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

#189

Post by aeneasmackenzie »

parsecs wrote: post #122
jcun4128 wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> bike brake cable Funny you mention that, this guy [1] made an actuator/arm recently doing that technique. Does work but accuracy/flex can be a problem. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahSS5HUylT8

Curious, could one apply fancy control theory and modern computing at the problem and fix most of the accuracy and flex problem? Position feedback with integrated sensors can be very compact and highly accurate, and human muscle seem to also use feedback control for holding position..

Rather than control theory you can use geometry to reduce the problems with cable driven robots. There are more but I like the Ambidex: https://youtu.be/aLaqMreVj9o

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

#190

Post by dr_orpheus »

anonymousDan wrote: post #98
dr_orpheus wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Semi-tethered approach would probably be good for being able to use around the house. And I think this would be consistent with other medical equipment. Some people who require oxygen often have a very large oxygen machine at home with a long cord so they can move around the house, but have to carry portable machines when they are not home. The portable exoskeleton is a pretty big leap though. I think in order to hav…

Or for added convenience, what if you had something like a roomba that followed you around the house and plugged in to a socket in the room on one end and to the exoskeleton frame on the other end without any manual intervention on your part?

That would be pretty cool. Also made me think of an idea (albient a super unsafe one) of having overhead power to connect to like an electric trolley.
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