Pimp My HAL

The FDA Just Approved a Robotic Exoskeleton That Augments Your Strength
Jan 2018, futurism.com

Here's a lower body exoskeleton that senses your impulses to help you move better stronger faster. HAL stands for hybrid assisted limb.

And here's another one I found called SuitX, for $40k, and weighing 27lbs with an 8hr battery pack, and pictured above. You can walk 1 mph in it, which is about half speed. For reference, motorized wheelchairs are in the thousands of dollars, so we have a way to go before competing in that market, but the game is afoot.

And here's a bunch more mentioned, in case you're interested.

Back to HAL, this FDA-approved exoskeleton is for medical use, at least that's what they call it. This means it's for people with paralysis of their legs. Then, there's the non-medical version, and that's for anyone, and that's when we start to see people outfit their exoskeleton the way we do a car or a bicycle (or a wheelchair).

And on a more serious note, I remind readers of artist and former classmate of mine - Christina Symanski - who lost control of her lower body in her 20's and didn't make it to her 30's. Had she made it to her 40's, she might have been able to move her legs again.

In Honor of Christina Symanski