Exoskeletons have been serving to paraplegic sufferers to stroll for years, however the newest growth from KAIST is just a little completely different. The WalkON Swimsuit F1 can amble over to a affected person seated in a wheelchair, wrap itself across the legs and physique, and get the consumer up and strolling.
Professor Kyoung-Chul Kong from KAIST’s Division of Mechanical Engineering has been engaged on exoskeletons for round a decade, with the primary WalkON Swimsuit being revealed in 2016. By 2020, the analysis workforce had elevated the strolling pace to three.2 km/h (1.98 mph) and entered the fourth-generation prototype into the Cybathlon in Switzerland.
This “cyborg Olympics” was launched in 2016 by ETH Zurich to drive advances in assistive applied sciences. The primary occasion was held close to Zurich and attracted groups from 25 nations, and noticed 66 “pilots” compete for the highlight. 4 years later, pilots sporting KAIST’s WalkON Swimsuit 4.0 positioned first and third within the Exoskeleton Race occasion. The third Cybathlon came about this previous weekend, with Professor Kong’s workforce fielding the most recent growth from the WalkON engineers.
WalkON Swimsuit F1: The Subsequent-Gen Exoskeleton That Walks Itself
The place different exoskeletons require helpers to lift paralyzed sufferers out of their wheelchairs earlier than strapping them to the assistive units, the WalkON Swimsuit F1 can “stroll by itself like a humanoid robotic” and method the affected person. It contains a front-docking system which means the paraplegic consumer can stay seated because the exoskeleton installs itself across the physique and legs of the affected person.
There is a system in place “that actively controls the middle of its weight towards the pull of gravity” to stop it toppling over because the consumer is assisted right into a standing place. General steadiness has been tweaked to allow using each palms whereas upright, together with brief bursts without having a supporting cane. The highly effective motors and management algorithms have been considerably improved in comparison with earlier variations, and the setup even sports activities imaginative and prescient recognition for impediment detection.
KAIST
Paraplegic Seunghwan Kim – the engineering lab’s employees researcher – served as pilot for the 2024 Cybathlon’s exoskeleton competitors. Although some groups made the journey to Switzerland to compete, Professor Kong’s workforce elected to dwell broadcast its try from particular amenities of the corporate he arrange in 2017 to commercialize wearable robots, Angel Robotics.
Groups had been challenged with finishing varied missions inside a decent time slot, together with “shifting by sidesteps between slim chairs, shifting containers, strolling freely unassisted by crutches, passing by means of a slim door and shutting it behind, and dealing on meals preparation within the kitchen.”
KAIST
It took Kim and the WalkON Swimsuit F1 6 minutes and 41 seconds to finish all missions, and safe first place. Second place went to a Swiss workforce and third to Thai engineers, although neither of those managed to complete all duties throughout the allotted 10 minutes.
“The varied know-how and core applied sciences accrued whereas making ready for this competitors is to contribute to additional growth and propagation of wearable robots, frightening creativeness to attract on the way forward for wearable robots and on the way it might change our every day lives,” reads a KAIST press launch detailing the win.
WalkON Swimsuit F1: The Subsequent-Gen Exoskeleton That Walks Itself
Supply: KAIST
