by SARAH FECHT
Several years ago a workplace accident left 42-year-old Michael Gore paralyzed from the waist down and confined to a wheelchair. Now he’s able to walk again, thanks to the Indego Exoskeleton, a pair of strap-on robotic legs that uses motion sensors to determine where Gore wants to go. Using crutches for support, Gore leans forward to tell the Indego legs to stand and move forward; he leans back to make it sit. Other devices, such as ReWalk, Ekso, and ALEX, work in a similar fashion. These exoskeletons are amazing, but they are just the beginning.
Future exoskeletons will ditch the crutches and be driven by thought alone, freeing the user’s hands and making it possible for people who are paralyzed from the neck down to also get around using exoskeleton technology. This research is still in its early stages, but scientists working on a product called NeuroRex are alr
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