<story><title>Father builds exoskeleton to help wheelchair-bound son walk</title><url>https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/father-builds-exoskeleton-help-wheelchair-bound-son-walk-2021-07-26/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>manmeet</author><text>This is amazing. I built one to help my nephew walk, and now selling commercially ( &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;trexorobotics.com&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;trexorobotics.com&lt;/a&gt; )&lt;p&gt;I am fed-up at the lack of options available to individuals. People thought that everyone will get an exoskeleton and be able to walk with it everywhere. But the industry ran into many challenges.&lt;p&gt;A big one that many dont understand is getting insurance coverage. The way the US healthcare system is designed, it will only cover restoration of mobility, not a restoration of function. So, from their perspective, a wheelchair and some pain meds can do the job easily.&lt;p&gt;I believe that they key is to start with children, this is where you have families desperate for a solution, higher costs due to them growing and spending their entire life in a wheelchair, and the option to truly have a life changing impact.&lt;p&gt;But things are changing, people are starting to notice the work that we are doing. We need a lot more people building exoskeletons and similar powered orthotics!!</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>chime</author><text>&amp;gt; So, from their perspective, a wheelchair and some pain meds can do the job easily.&lt;p&gt;And not even a good wheelchair. For my wife recently diagnosed with MS, they would only approve of a basic, featureless, uncomfortable one after I would pay the $3000 deductible plus 20% coinsurance. Instead, I got a light-weight folding electric wheelchair with nearly full-day worth of battery (15 miles), with a spare battery, adjustable headrest for $1300 off Amazon. Add an octopus-tripod fan with 10hr battery, golf-cart umbrella, bendable cane holder, bottle holder, and an A&amp;#x2F;C fan jacket for a total of $200 and now she is able to spend a few hours out with our kids at museums, aquariums, and zoos.&lt;p&gt;It was literally cheaper for me to buy all of this cash than try to spend 40+ hours getting insurance approval.&lt;p&gt;I absolutely love how practical and solid your product is. I cannot comment on the pricing because I have no idea what your costs&amp;#x2F;market is but if my kid needed $999&amp;#x2F;mo to walk, I would do literally anything to be able to afford it. Hopefully the costs keep coming down for those with a smaller budget. Good luck!</text></comment>
<story><title>Father builds exoskeleton to help wheelchair-bound son walk</title><url>https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/father-builds-exoskeleton-help-wheelchair-bound-son-walk-2021-07-26/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>manmeet</author><text>This is amazing. I built one to help my nephew walk, and now selling commercially ( &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;trexorobotics.com&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;trexorobotics.com&lt;/a&gt; )&lt;p&gt;I am fed-up at the lack of options available to individuals. People thought that everyone will get an exoskeleton and be able to walk with it everywhere. But the industry ran into many challenges.&lt;p&gt;A big one that many dont understand is getting insurance coverage. The way the US healthcare system is designed, it will only cover restoration of mobility, not a restoration of function. So, from their perspective, a wheelchair and some pain meds can do the job easily.&lt;p&gt;I believe that they key is to start with children, this is where you have families desperate for a solution, higher costs due to them growing and spending their entire life in a wheelchair, and the option to truly have a life changing impact.&lt;p&gt;But things are changing, people are starting to notice the work that we are doing. We need a lot more people building exoskeletons and similar powered orthotics!!</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>optymizer</author><text>I was looking at the videos, and realized that maybe we don&amp;#x27;t need small exo-bones (societal expectations and normalcy aside), maybe it&amp;#x27;s easier to go the other way and make exo-robots, since they&amp;#x27;d be bigger with more room for batteries, could balance on their own and a human could be sitting&amp;#x2F;standing inside, driving the legs with some input method - either with legs, or hand gestures.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m picturing the robot in Avatar [1], but with an open top and much less threatening and not weaponized [2], like big robotic pants. If I were to quit my job, it would be to make human robot minotaurs a reality, but then again, what do I know about robots?&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=F6ttDZFmGqg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=F6ttDZFmGqg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[2] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.pcmag.com&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;toyotas-latest-humanoid-robot-can-balance-on-one-leg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.pcmag.com&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;toyotas-latest-humanoid-robot-can...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>