This article was originally published on the Exoskeleton Report website.
Just what exactly is an exoskeleton anyways?! – reads the title of an article that tries to shed some light on the question all the way back from 2017. (link) In the last seven years, there have been countless changes and breakthroughs in the exo industry, and that article now needs an update. Catch Prof. Tom Sugar, director of the Wearable Robotics Association, and myself as we do a 15-minute deep dive into what is an exoskeleton device and what we would exclude:
Links to some of the devices and websites mentioned in the video above:
- Exoskeleton Report Catalog (over 200 medical, industrial/occupational, military, and recreational exoskeleton devices): https://exoskeletonreport.com/product-category/exoskeleton-catalog/
- Orthexo.de (includes reference materials on 100+ occupational exoskeletons): https://orthexo.de
- Wearable Robotics Association: https://wearablerobotics.com
Getting the word out there that practical, real, exoskeletons exist continues to be a hurdle to the faster proliferation of this technology. There are millions who could benefit from exo tech around the world, but they won’t have access to it without more investments and investigations into this blossoming tech field. But it is not just business. Students, regulators, future entrepreneurs, and working professionals must be exposed to hype-free practical information on what this technology can do for them. Therefore, educating and amplifying the message that we have had a digital revolution and now have the technology for a physical one is essential.
Video Transcript:
Tom what is an exoskeleton exoskeleton?
It’s a device that’s worn it’s a device that typically assists or helps people while doing a task it helps their motion it’s been used to reduce fatigue it’s been used to maybe improve quality like draw a better straight line we’ve been saying that exoskeletons can be powered or unpowered and we’ve been saying exoskeletons can be let’s say either for the arms or upper body or typically exoskeletons can be for the lower body and I’m most particularly interested in exoskeletons for the occupational market so used in manufacturing or in the OR industry or Logistics in that sense.
Thanks, Tom. My name is Bobby Marinov. I’m the founder of the exoskeleton report, and I’m with Dr. Tom Sugar, who is the director of the Wearable Robotics Association.
ASTM International defines exoskeletons is a wearable device that augments enables assists and or enhances physical activity through mechanical interactions with the body so I’ve personally been part of the committee that has come up with this term and the exoskeleton report has a slightly different definition so it has to be a device that is fitted between one or more of the human joints and it can assist augment but it can also be a resistive device that purposely pushes against or tries to prevent the motion of a joint that is the only difference where I differ with the ASTM International definition.
So you’re saying it could be a device that like resists the motion so maybe you wanted it would just hold your your arm and resist it from falling down something?
Bobby: Like yeah some famous examples of resistive EX skeletons um Samsung was trying to do the gem series of exercise exoskeletons where you’re trying to apply resistance directly at the Joint the motion of the joint rather than putting weights or Springs or elastic elements somewhere that is peripheral and then you would have sensors at the exact center of rotation at the Joint so you have a better idea of what is the exercise that is happening and you can if it’s a power variation on that you can even have sensors and motors that change their resistance NASA has had a wearable device for astronauts so other than having gym equipment to have a resistive suit that tries to fight the loss of muscle density the loss of muscle mass while you’re in space and there’s another example that comes to mind and I’m sure that there’s many more there was a aging simulator by the insurance company where it purposely the exos scan would purposely lock up your knee to simulate bad knees as that the senior citizen could experience or purposely throw off your balance by locking up joints uh randomly or semi randomly to show why the elderly are sometimes crouching when they’re walking where their muscles uh fine they don’t trust the muscle control so their exoskeleton was a way for individuals to experience what being old would feel like.
- Samsung’s GEMS training exoskeleton concept:
What is there something that is similar to an exoskeleton but is not an exoskeleton?
Tom: A cobot where people think about a robot that’s next to you that is supposed to assist you so there’s cobots that let’s say hold a item for you or maybe hold a tool for you and it allows you to do some work uh at the workplace but that device is not I mean it does interact with you right so if the cobot is holding a tool and you’re you know working with uh you know with that tool a little bit you do have some interactions but it’s not directly worn you know I mean it’s not on the shoulder or on your arm but that would be something I think that would be very similar that you know industry would be thinking about um so I think that would be one example do you have any other examples that yeah so the recap your example it’s a it’s a device it does physical work yes with you but it is not a wearable device right so it fails that part of the definition yeah I have one uh last year there was a lot of Buzz about these gloves that uh assembly workers can wear and it will beep and blink if the wrong bin is being accessed so you have something that you’re trying to assemble and your workstation is set to you go to bin one bin two bin three bin four and you go in the wrong order then it will start to beep and blink okay so that is now a weareable it is a device but it does no physical work it will not help you physically pick anything it will not help you hold on to components like a powered glove exoskeleton would so it’s missing that physical interaction something like a smartwatch is a wearable it’s a device but it can only beep blink vibrate it can give you information that something is happening but it will do no physical work to assist or resist or in any way um help with the manipulation or completion of that task right so that’s good so we gave two examples one example was a robot doing work but it was not wearable and in your second example you gave a wearable device but it did not but it wasn’t doing work but it doesn’t do mechanical work right precisely right those two nice examples now another example that I think is like really close to to an exoskeleton is my my dad works with uh these golf training robots which is a 7 axis motorized Titanic device that holds a golf stick on one end and the user holds the golf stick on the other end as nor normal and you get to experience how a pro will do a swing in every single rotation both the full swing and the motion in the wrists right you hit the ball and the the machine and you can do the same exact same professional swing a 100 times 200 times with absolute consistency and reproducibility but that is again more of a cobot rather than a wearable device so again it is not an exoskeleton.
Robo Golf Pro (example of something that is NOT an exoskeleton but shares many of the features):
Bobby: what about completely elastic setups like there’s multiple of them for foot drop where it’s a band that goes on your ankle a band that goes on the shoe and it’s a elastic jumper [bungie cord].
Tom: So I think we you and I have had some discussions on that whether they are or are not an exoskeleton because that question gets down to are these braces or are these orthotic devices an exoskeleton and in some sense I actually come down on the idea that if I was to build a smart bracing system that add some Springs to it I kind of almost think that it is a passive exoskeleton that basically stores some energy at that joint or resists the motion of a joint or you know let’s say helps the ankle move back and forth properly or gives some stability of that inversion ersion I almost come down to the idea that some of these bracings can be thought of as exoskeletons some people might disagree with.
Bobby: What I’m hearing from you is that there is no one definition that is universally accepted by every single organization as to what exactly an exoskeleton is which is not the end of the word because there’s many successful industries like the robotics industry which does not have a single accepted definition right so right and so I mean the idea comes down to you have you know passive empowered bracing or passive empowered Orthotics you have passive empowered Prosthetics you have passive empowered exoskeletons.
Tom: I personally kind of like to use the word wearable robotics because I thought that that term was more General and a wearable robotics could incorporate lots of different wearable systems like exoskeletons or orthotics or prosthetics and those types of things we didn’t get into so we tried to stay a little bit away from uh you know the wearable watches and things like that so I I stayed away from that but that’s honestly the reason we chose the word wearable robotics to be a little bit more gentle.
Bobby: yeah and I ended up with exoskeleton report you ended up with what about robotics absolutely and then for people who are not familiar when we say passive active do we do we mean passive as it just stands back and does nothing and an active or actively do something or do we mean something else.
Tom: Yeah you we usually mean something else. So we usually mean like I’ll give you an example of a passive back exoskeleton so it would be an exoskeleton with springs and when you squat down you store energy or maybe you would want to say something like you you start the the uh the the motion you store that energy and then when you stand back up that energy is returned to you so that’s typically what we’ll mean on a passive exoskeleton or a passive exoskeleton might be a spring-loaded should system that helps to raise your arm but you do have to push against that system as you go down and then an active system I like to think of as typically motors or or compressed air or other devices where you’re actively putting energy into to that exoskeleton or into that brace and then you can adjust the timing you can adjust the force forces you could turn the system off and on and things like that so so that’s what I mean by passive and active exoskeletons.
So to to recap, it basically we mean a power exoskeleton is something that has a power source be it a battery or compressed air and then a passive one is one that typically the user needs to energize first with the beginning of the emotion for you is if someone wants to learn more about exoskeletons there are websites that list what’s currently available on the market yeah and for me the the best website for understanding what’s currently on the market is the exoskeleton Report with a updated catalog that’s you know internationally recognized um that would probably be you know the best spot um that I know for for a lot of information.
Bobby: yeah and you have helped uh keep that up to date for which I’m most thankful and then what would be another good resource for example I sometimes refer to Orthexo, they have a catalog of exoskeleton devices as well.
Tom: for us I’m just thinking how for us academics you know we go to Google Scholar and then we’ll ask ask for what they call review papers so you would say could I have a review paper on a you know exoskeletons there are also a couple books out there so there’s there’s two or three books that you could uh on exoskeletons that you could look at too um is there any other web pages that come to mind for you?
Bobby: I think at one point VDEI which is the European Association on exoskeleton producers had some sort of a like an EXO resource, but I haven’t been to it in a while. Maybe there can be a separate video where we go over some of the best books on exoskeletons for a way to search for papers and give a preview to the different websites that are out there.
Tom: Right because I was thinking too that there’s some integrators that are looking and it’s just starting but there’s some integrators that are saying, “you know I’ll sell four five six different types of exoskeletons” and you can go there. Maybe there’s an ergonomics company that’s an integrator so that’s sense.
Bobby: Wonderful, well thanks for your time!
Tom: Thank you Bobby.