eLegs - Robotic Legs for paraplegics

eLegs is an exoskeleton for wheel*chair users. It powers you up to get you standing and walking.

The battery-powered, rechargeable system includes a backpack-mounted controller, robotic legs with motorized hips and knee joints, and crutches that employ a gesture-based human-machine interface and sensors to observe the wearer's gestures and respond accordingly. Velcro straps, backpack-style clips, and shoulder straps secure eLegs to users over their clothing and everyday shoes.

Watch the video where: Amanda Boxtel stands and walks for the first time in 18 years using eLegs, a 45-pound wearable robotic exoskeleton aimed at getting paraplegics out of their wheelchairs and onto their feet. It's an amazing sight.

[video=youtube;WcM0ruq28dc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcM0ruq28dc&feature=player_embedded#![/video]

"To take my first step in the eLegs was just astounding," Boxtel says with tears in her eyes, "because I bent my knee for the first time in 18 years and I placed my heel on the ground. And then I transferred my weight. And then I took another step. And another one. And it was so natural, and that was what really gripped me."

The good news is that:

Berkeley Bionics CEO Eythor Bender says the company is hoping to make the eLegs system available for around $50,000--about half the cost of current high-end wheelchairs.
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Source: Cnet News.