Welcome to Episode 18 of the Exoskeletons and Wearable Robotics Podcast. We continue our discussion of medical exoskeletons and physical rehabilitation robotics, this time, joined by Dr. Arun Jayaraman, Executive Director, Technology & Innovation Hub (tiHUB) at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab. Few people on the planet have more hands-on experience; Arun has tested, evaluated, and implemented more rehabilitation exoskeleton systems than anyone else in the field.

In this episode, he outlines how to differentiate between medical devices based on purpose, the need to pull resources together in order to achieve higher integration with current systems and acceptability, and much more:

Main Topics: 00:00 Introduction 01:51 About the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab – Where Bioengineers and Clinicians Merge 08:53 Balancing expectations with investors and users. 19:42 Learning when to use medical exoskeletons 23:07 What are some success stories to highlight 26:12 Differentiating personal mobility vs physical rehabilitation 31:54 On the importance of working together 44:50 Example of working together – RehabWeek 2025 – Chicago 46:44 Differences in standard of care create & interpret results 49:53 Where do exoskeletons make a big difference? – Getting people to be more mobile. 58:03 Do you always need FDA approval? 59:46 The gains are there, even if the sales are not. 1:12:32 Final takeaways: building on existing work vs. starting from scratch.