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Robotic Suit: A Miracle for the New Year In the December 7 episode of the TV hit Glee, the character Artie, a high school student who is confined to a wheelchair, gets up and starts walking. Was the device "just Hollywood magic or based on real science?" asks a recent Newsweek article. The good news for some 125,000 paraplegics in the U.S., is that the device, called ReWalk, which got its start at the Technion incubator, is very real. ReWalk is a lightweight, robotic exoskeleton that allows paraplegics to stand, walk, and take stairs themselves. Worn around the legs and torso, the device works using a combination of motion sensors, electric motors, and a computerized backpack - controlled by a wristband. “It shifts a person from a wheelchair user status to a crutch user status, which is a whole difference,” says its designer, Technion alum Amit Goffer of Argo Medical Technologies in Yoqneam, Israel.
After a 1997 accident left Goffer paralyzed from the chest down, “I looked around and was wondering how come the wheelchair is the only solution,” he says. Goffer, who was formerly an electrical engineer, quickly got to work on the invention. He soon made a selfless design choice that meant he personally could not use the device: if the wearer could use crutches, it would simplify balance (and conserve energy), as the device wouldn’t have to keep the person upright all on its own. ReWalk has been used in clinical trials in Israel, and at MossRehab, part of Albert Einstein Healthcare Network in Philadelphia with impressive results. Researchers there are finding that the very act of standing and walking again offers not only emotional rewards, but provides natural exercise for the heart and bones, and lessens some of the complications associated with being wheelchair bound. The device recently received FDA approval for institutional use, and is scheduled for sale to rehab centers as early as January. “In the near future, we are going to continue to develop the device so that a quadraplegic or tetraplegic like myself will be able to use it,” Goffer says. To see a video about ReWalk, click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6dReXS6934 The Technion-Israel Institute of Technology is Israel's leading science and technology university. Home to the country’s first winners of the Nobel Prize in science, it commands a worldwide reputation for its pioneering work in nanotechnology, computer science, biotechnology, water-resource management, materials engineering, aerospace and medicine. The majority of the founders and managers of Israel's high-tech companies are alumni. Based in New York City, the American Technion Society (ATS) is the leading American organization supporting higher education in Israel, with offices around the country. |
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