Exoskeletons....and related startups...can we get a demo for a hackathon in the Bega Valley in May

[SoccerFit]

Hey folks, 

As always...apologies in advance if this is non-conformant with group etiquette....but..

• anyone know of startups involved in powered exoskeletons and related fields
• I am part of a group organising a Hackathon in the Bega Valley in late May 2017, tentatively called 'Hack Dis', focussed on disability matters, and am interested in demonstrating this type of tech...perhaps with a view to inspiring some coders to look at this field more closely - here is the type of benefit we envisage - https://www.technologyreview.com/s/546276/this-40000-robotic-exoskeleton-lets-the-paralyzed-walk/
• I am aware that Australian Defence have put some effort into this field with some success...but I am interested in other stories around Oz related to this.

Anyone with any thoughts, views, ideas, I would love to hear from you.

Regards, 

Liam O'Duibhir

Co-ordinator IntoIT Sapphire Coast (intoitsapphirecoast.com)

[drllau]

>exoskeletons and related fields

a whole exoskeleton is hard due to the portable energy density limits ... I've seen some preliminary work from liquid-prosthetics coming out of academia but not to the point of a spinout. I attended a funding event where a US company was pitching to expand some of their manufacturing operations to china but that wasn't a whole solution. The market may just be a little immature which is good for hackers and toy-tinkering (akin to Apple 1 days) but harsh for serious startups. Defence and medical prosthetics as always been a specialty market, there's the whole prospect of retiring baby boomers for assistive technology but for mobility purposes, scooters/segways give better power/distance to utility ratios. I know the Japanese are working on domestic robots but it's a different order of engineering for exoskeletons. 

Let's consider the fundamental issues - strength to weight, power density, cybernetic feedback times. For anything to be worn by disabled, it needs to be closer to Ironman than MechWarriors, which implies low weight/bulk but decent structural integrity which implies advanced materials which is not cheap. Suddenly you've cut your prospective market to top 10% or 1%ers who can probably afford personal aides anyway. For something useful it needs to work over an interval to justify getting in/out which means external power ... if a phone just after a few hours just imagine the energy storage to run a skeleton for a large chunk of the day. There's some work on printed lithium batteries which can be form-fitted but the weight becomes more of an issue which is why armies don't carry around armored suits anymore. Then look at the challenges of control, interfacing with nervous system and balance. Our brains have been trained from childhood to intuitively map spatial cognition with muscle reactions and sensory feedback. Thus becomes an individual tuning process and even with AI techniques is non-trivial. 

So from Australia's PoV, materials science is hardcore but has spinoffs in autonomous vehicles as well as personal mobility, power technology is engineering, but cybernetics is probably doable. Whether a startup can be sustainable depends on what contracts they get with the hardware side. I believe there's some people in Perth working on underwater autonomous vehicles and probably some industrial groups on automating the mining and shuttle tankers long-distance carriage problems. However, without access to a decent high density power sources, I conjecture personal exo-skeletons are going to be hard to get off ground in Australia.

>other stories around Oz related to this

A different pathway might be via the clothing industry, through technical textiles, smart fabrics and clever clothing. Adding more lightweight sensors and controlling some extrinsic aspects wouldn't be out of capabilities of Australia, especially if they focus on the sport industry. A good example is injury prevention which is more a one-off energy spike than continuous draw (eg stiffening an ankle brace on detection of bad landing angle) and given the competitive nature (cf shark skin swimsuits) there would be customers. You also have to factor in the useful lifespan for a professional athelete is measured in decades if not years and therefore preventing injuries at height of your career is a worthwhile investment. Given the branding that major labels throw around, it could start fads among followers which justify any R&D. Another segment would be adventure/outdoor gear where you have to hump your own stuff and therefore value of "smart" fabrics must be justified in terms of utility per weight. Ripcurl et al show how you can turn technical dominance in a subculture into a major market player so it is not impossible.

Lawrence

http://www.linkedin.com/in/drllau

[Liam O'Duibhir, Director, SoccerFit]

Thank you for that...apologies for delayed response.

So...some solid points there about the criticality of the power source..certainly for military purposes.

I think exoskeletons in the factory environment to supplement human capacity also has some viability. This also has the attraction as a 'leveller'...people who are physically strong can now be matched (potentially) by people with lower lifting capacity (as an example). 

I must say, personally, I think the clothing-based exoskeleton model has more 'legs' (geddit!) - http://www.psfk.com/2017/01/exoskeletal-suit-elderly.html

And yes...there is a military outdoor version talked about here that is interesting - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4140772/Soft-exoskeleton-lighten-load-soldiers.html

As regards an Aussie exoskeleton startup play...hmmmm...love to hear of any movement in this space.....

Liam

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Liam O'Duibhir 

0417 579 079

[drllau]

> So...some solid points there about the criticality of the power source..certainly for military purposes.

Military always have headaches with logistics as fuel supplies are always an Archilles heel ... as the Germans found out in WW2. Any domestic solution (at least for the filthy rich) can probably put in an floor-grid for inductive charging (if on heel, lower centre of gravity) so you can get away with parasitic energy harvesting for low-powered sensors and just continually recharge your capacitors. Of course the $$/kWhr is not cheap but then most new technology tends to target the well-off initially. I fear decent exo-skeletons will wait for radical energy conversion breakthroughs otherwise the MechWarrior is going to be the norm for military.

>people who are physically strong can now be matched (potentially) by people with lower lifting capacity

there's actually a surplus of unskilled labor (globally) so the target domain would be areas where robotics don't have the task flexibility or where skilled powered micro control (orthopedic surgery?) is necessary as compared with gross movements

> As regards an Aussie exoskeleton startup play...hmmmm...love to hear of any movement in this space.....

I suspect the capital limitations for hard-core engineering are against the odds as Australia doesn't have DARPA equivalent.

Lawrence

http://www.linkedin.com/in/drllau

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