Ekso Bionics Holdings Inc (EKSO)

[Bobby Marinov]

"Maybe, we will get a comparison of industrial exoskeletons one day."

I think that is what all of 2018 is going to be about! We have the technology, but how do we test it and describe it??? What is needed is a standardized terminology and test methods.

Until now, exoskeletons have always been slightly different. For example, take lower body gait rehabilitation. The Ekso Bionics Ekso GT has a different motor controls scheme compared to the Indego, which has a different motor control scheme of the HAL, etc...

However, with shoulder support exoskeletons, for the first time we have virtually identical devices (talking about EksoVest, Levitate, and ShoulderX). Each company claims their's is the best, but we don't have a fair, pre-agreed upon test that all can be run through and compared.

I believe that the strategy adopted by Strong Arm Technologies is going to be adopted by all industrial exoskeleton developers:
1. Make a device with clearly defined capabilities: define what it can and can't do
2. Collect quantifiable (numerical), reproducible data on the user's performance with and without the device. Strong Arm have invested a lot of time in developing their FUSE mobile sensor system that can evaluate the safety of workers lifting throughout an entire work day for an entire site and reduce it to a single number, with and without their exoskeletons. That is genius. I know that Levitate chose a different route to acquire their performance data, but it is just as ingenious and entirely numerical. Unfortunately, I am not sure what performance data Ekso Bionics have on the EksoVest.

In 2018, expect to see a lot more about standards, wearable sensors, applications, customer feedback, etc...

ISO has two robotics work groups (WG2, WG4) that have started to tackle exoskeletons
ASTM just founded F48 on Exoskeletons and Exosuits
IEEE has a work group and has sponsored some events
The Japanese Industrial Standards Committee has published a standards on exoskeleton safety and back support exoskeleton testing using a robotic dummy