A father builds an exoskeleton to help his wheelchair-bound son walk... J
NPNBMXC45BLGFLFUBQLJOM6Q7E.jpg
"Robot, stand up" - Oscar Constanza, 16, gives the order and slowly but surely a large frame strapped to his body lifts him up and he starts walking. Fastened to his shoulders, chest, waist, knees and feet, the exoskeleton allows Oscar - who has a genetic neurological condition that means his nerves do not send enough signals to his legs - to walk across the room and turn around. "Before, I needed someone to help me walk ... this makes me feel independent," said Oscar, as his father Jean-Louis Constanza, one of the co-founders of the company that makes the exoskeleton, looks on.
"One day Oscar said to me: 'dad, you're a robotic engineer, why don't you make a robot that would allow us to walk?'" his father recalls, speaking at the company Wandercraft's headquarters in Paris.
Wandercraft's exoskeleton, an outer frame that supports but also simulates body movement, has been sold to dozens of hospitals in France, Luxembourg and the United States, for about 150,000 euros ($176,000) a piece, Constanza said. It cannot yet be bought by private individuals for everyday use - that is the next stage the company is working on. A personal skeleton would need to be much lighter, Wandercraft engineers said.
index.jpg
Atlante-Kinematic-1024x843.png
wandercraft-tells-us-about-atalanta-the-exoskeletonwandercraft-tells-us-about-atalanta-the-exosk.jpg
wandercraft-large-RR.jpg
https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/fa...rce=reddit.com