Summary & Reader's Response Draft #2

 Summary:

The article “Where’s My Supersuit?” Zelik (2019) talks about recent developments that have been made in the world of wearable exoskeletons, or “supersuits”. 

Early exoskeletons have been created to assist the elderly, the physically impaired and jobs that are physically intensive. The article introduces an improved version that can be toggleable with a switch. It utilizes springs and assistive fabric elastic bands, woven into a cloth-based material. The improved supersuit solves the issues of its predecessors by allowing it to be worn for longer periods of time without wearing out the user. 

Lastly, Zelik wants to incorporate sensors and machine learning into the supersuits in the future. He believes that the introduction of these components will allow these supersuits to assist many more industries, such as in the medical and sport industry. He also wishes that in about 30 years’ time, these supersuits will be accessible to the public. 

 

Reader's Response:

Current exoskeletons are limited in terms of their practicality and comfort. With future developments in exoskeletons fitted with wearable sensors, biomechanical algorithms and neck supports, it will further enhance the lives of users. To further enhance the lives of the users, there are several hoops that the development of exoskeletons will have to jump through.

The development of exoskeletons will need to overcome some of its glaring issues. Firstly, exoskeletons can be very expensive thus being inaccessible to the public. An average cost of a full-body exoskeleton is about $45,000 (Bernd, 2021)

, some advanced options even cost upwards of $100,000 (Cost Charts, n.d.). As these options are still very expensive, it is still only accessible to the big corporations. Individuals like elderlies, people with back pain and people who are recovering from an injury, may not even be able to afford a mediocre exoskeleton. Those mediocre exoskeletons still cost about $20,000. Some of these people may see their condition worsen as they are unable to afford the exoskeleton.

Secondly, exoskeletons are still very bulky, thus interfering with tasks and being uncomfortable to wear. The workers of corporations keep facing these problems when using the exoskeletons. Since most users are the workers of these corporations, exoskeletons still have issues affecting most users.

 

Aside from the issues of the current exoskeletons, it can be implemented to assist specific body parts, making it cheaper to produce, and thus being affordable and able to enhance more people’s lives. Motorized exoskeleton on the legs, arms or hands can help individuals recovering from stroke or other neurological injury.

 

We can still develop exoskeletons in other ways. With the incorporation of wearable sensors and biomechanical algorithms, the exoskeletons may be able to train people to properly lift weights. One of the biggest causes for injury when lifting weights is doing so with incorrect form. Training someone to lift weights takes a lot of time, time in which they can still get hurt. With this upgraded exoskeleton, it will be able to accelerate the learning process which in turn reduces injuries.

With the incorporation of neck supports, exoskeletons will be able to help improve the posture of the user's neck. In this age of digitalization, we often look down at our devices and straining our necks which in turn may affect our tasks. Surgeons face strained necks as well as they lean forward for long periods of time during procedures. Strained necks may affect surgeons and their ability to operate.

 

However, these developments will require decades and millions of dollars to possibly develop significant breakthrough to solve the stated issues, allowing the exoskeleton to enhance the lives of users. Perhaps there might be cheaper and quicker solutions to the problems. Problems like the health of physical laborers, we could develop fully autonomous, high precision robots to do physical labour. Amazon adopted high-tech robots to move heavy goods around their largest warehouse (Joseph, 2021). With a viable solution that already exists, implementing such a system can greatly reduce the injuries from heavy loads.

 

In conclusion, there are many hurdles to overcome to enhance the lives of users. Hurdles include the exoskeleton being too expensive and bulky, making it undesirable to the public and even to some current users. However, exoskeletons will still be in demand and have potential for growth, helping more people with future developments. Inclusion of new technology opens exoskeletons to more capabilities. However, these developments cost a lot and there may be other cheaper and quicker solutions to the problems out there.

 

References:

·       Bernd D. (2021, April 12). "The 'Iron Man' body armour many of us may soon be wearing". bbc.com https://www.bbc.com/news/business-56660644#:~:text=At%20the%20moment%2C%20however%2C%20more,%2C%22%20says%20Accenture's%20Mr%20Spragg  

·       Cost Charts. (n.d.). Exoskeleton cost by type. https://costcharts.com/exoskeleton/

·       Joseph N. (2021, Oct 18). “Inside Amazon’s largest warehouse – where you’ll find more robots than people”. inquirer.com https://www.inquirer.com/business/amazon-robots-delaware-largest-warehouse-fulfillment-20211017.html

·       Zelik, K. (2019, April 21). “Where’s My Supersuit”. Conversation.com https://theconversation.com/its-2019-wheres-my-supersuit-115679