Wandercraft’s latest exoskeleton lets paraplegics walk with a more natural gait | Engadget

Paris-based Wandercraft has announced that it is the latest “atalante“The exoskeleton has been upgraded to give paraplegics and other patients a more natural gait during rehabilitation exercises. It has also received a Medical Device Regulation (MDR) certificate in Europe, allowing patients and staff medical device to use the device more widely.Finally, a step closer to personal exoskeletons was taken with additional funding.

The last time I saw Wandercraft’s first generation exoskeleton it was over four years ago, which is an age in the field of robotics. However, I recently had the opportunity to see the latest model in use with paraplegic patients and chat with them and the team behind Atalante.

exoskeletons (or exos, as they’re called in the industry) are powered “wearable robots” tailored to each user, designed to aid in walking rehabilitation treatments and restore a patient’s mobility. Atalante is Wandercraft’s second generation Exo with more advanced design and features than the original model. It comes with a remote control to operate it and a new app that allows the physical therapist and the patient to adjust movements and exercise programs. It uses two sets of removable batteries that allow continuous use.

The latest model is much smaller, more streamlined, and more comfortable for patients, thanks to new hardware, fit adjustments, and smarter software. It is now self-balancing, making it easier for both patients and therapists to control. Although not yet approved for use on its own, Wandercraft showed me a video demonstrating that it can balance itself, even when pushed out of control. It also offers features that make it easy to get in and out, along with a “Wander Balance” feature that allows for easy “verticalization” to help the patient stand up.

The device automatically generates an optimized and adjustable kinematics according to the morphology of each patient, with settings that allow personalized exercises. The newest feature is “RealGait” (shown above), which allows physiological walking with adjustable speeds. “CustomGait” allows the pace, stride length and center of mass to be changed, while “ActiveGait” allows the user to change the assist effort from 0 to 100 percent. That feature also includes an “EarlyGait” setting for getting started, along with the new RealGait setting.

Those features, plus small changes, make Atalante much more useful. “We’ve improved half-turns to happen in one place instead of taking up a lot of space,” Wandercraft CEO Matthieu Masselin told me. “We’ve redesigned things like the accessories and the padding. That allows the patient to get in and out faster, move more comfortably and walk more in each session, which means more rehabilitation and re-education benefits.”

All of that is enabled by numerous sensors and software that can make adjustments on the fly, Wandercraft told me. The device’s “sense of balance” makes various gait patterns possible, while giving the patient and physical therapist confidence that the device (still not light at 130 pounds) will not tip over.

Wandercraft allows some patients to use Atalante for rehabilitation purposes and I saw it in action with Arbiha, a paraplegic patient who used it in multiple sessions. The device was suspended from the ceiling and operated by a physical therapist for safety reasons, but the plan is to one day have a version that can be used in the real world without assistance.

It was surprising how easily he was able to walk during a relatively long one-hour session. Exotherapy offers some clear benefits, such as stimulation of the cardiovascular/lymphatic systems and training of the arms and other supporting muscles, but it goes much further.

“It strengthens both my body and my spirit,” Arbhia told me. “It gives me a cardio workout that I couldn’t get any other way. Being upright for a fairly long period of time also helps my balance, as you lose that aspect when you don’t stand up. I have a digestive disease and the Therapy of walking has also helped to stabilize that, which I didn’t expect at all.”

Wandercraft’s ultimate goal is a personal exoskeleton that can be used as an assistive device at home or on the go. To that end, the company has just received $45 million in funding to help it fulfill its mission of “mobility for all.” “With the equipment we have, the funding we’ve received, and the deeptech technology we’ve developed, we’re confident that one day we’ll be able to have our Exos on the streets and in people’s homes,” Masselin said. “But we still have a lot of work to do.”