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Ekso Bionics™ Secures Second Phase of U.S. Special Operation Command’s TALOS Project

Drawing By Csp499 on Deviantart.com

Congratulations to Ekso Bionics for being awarded a grant based on their  work on the first phase of TALOS!  TALOS (Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit) is the name of a yet undesigned exoskeleton suit for the U.S. Army.  While the use of exoskeletons for military purposes may not agree with everyone, the TALOS project brings together dozens of different corporations and research labs.  Through their participation in the TALOS project, Ekso Bionics has been able to partner with Stanford University’s OpenSim and SRI Robotics while also utilizing “$35million in total third party funded development work”.

You can read the full press release at the Ekso Bionics Website: EKSO BIONICS™ SECURES SECOND PHASE OF U.S. SPECIAL OPERATION COMMAND’S TALOS PROJECT

There is also an excellent article and video by Forbes where Bruce Upbin goes to Ekso Bionics and tries out one of the abled bodied assist exoskeleton prototypes: First Look At A Darpa-Funded Exoskeleton For Super Soldiers – Forbes,  December, 29th, 2014

Sarcos LC Acquires Raytheon Sarcos Unit of Raytheon

Sarcos LC, led by Dr. Fraser Smith and Ben Wolff have acquired Raytheon Sarcos from Raytheon.  Amongst other things, Sarcos Raytheon (2007-2015) was the creative powerhouse behind the and XOS 2 exoskeleton which captured a great deal of media attention around 2010.  While extremely ambitious the suit proved to be quite heavy and power hungry.  Hopefully, with the transfer of knowledge and technology to Sarcos LC there will be new iterations of the XOS exoskeletons!

You can read the full article at: Business Wire – Leading Robotics Innovator Sarcor Acquired by Consortium…

Exoskeletons in Rehabilitation

Exoskeletons in Rehabilitation Robotics, Tremor Suppression, Eduardo Rocon, José L. Pons, 2011

This book starts out with a great name: Exoskeletons in Rehabilitation implies that this will be great overview of the potential of power exoskeletons to enter the medicine field for stroke patients, muscle trauma patients or anyone recovering from loss of muscle strength or control.  Unfortunately, this is not the case as this book specializes only in tremor suppression and only on one research project.

Wearable Robotics: Biomechatronic Exoskeletons

Wearable Robots, Biomechatronic Exoskeletons, Edited by José L. Pons.  2008.

This is possibly the best book on power exoskeletons currently available on the market (2014)!  The book is divided into two main sections.  In the first section, the authors provide a strong and in-depth analysis of principles and challenges in making exoskeletons and ties each concept with an overview with one or two lab projects from around the world that have focused on the issue discussed.  The second section places a much greater emphasis on explaining the work of different exoskeleton labs by category (example: lower extremities power exoskeletons only).