Assignment 2: Summary & Reader's response (Final Draft, draft #3)
Effective Communication
Assignment 2: Summary & Reader’s response
Lim Bing Rui T6
Summary: (201
words)
The article “Where’s My
Supersuit?” Zelik (2019) discusses recent developments that have been made in
the world of wearable exoskeletons, or “supersuits”. Early exoskeletons were
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.
Current
exoskeletons need to overcome their shortcomings in terms of their cost, practicality
and comfort. Future developments on body specific assistance and incorporation
of technologies such as wearable
sensors, biomechanical algorithms and neck supports will
allow these exoskeletons to be able to reach out to more people and further
enhance the lives of users.
Reader’s Response: (605 words)
The existing exoskeletons will need to overcome its shortcomings
to reach out to more people and further enhance the lives of users. Firstly,
exoskeletons can be very expensive thus being inaccessible to the public. The average
cost of a full-body exoskeleton is about $45,000 (Bernd, 2021), while 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 people with back pain, such as the elderly, and
people who are recovering from an injury, may not even be able to afford a
mediocre exoskeleton. Cost Charts also states that 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 of users and being uncomfortable to wear (Zelik, 2019). The workers of
corporations keep facing these problems when using the exoskeletons. This show
that exoskeletons still have its shortcomings and will require further
development to reach more people and further enhance the lives of users.
Aside from the shortcomings of current exoskeletons, implementation
of body specific assisting exoskeletons will make them cheaper to produce. Thus,
being affordable the public and able to enhance the lives of more people
(Zelik, 2019). Motorized exoskeleton on the legs, arms or hands can help
individuals recovering from stroke or other neurological injury, as mentioned
by Zelik.
Exoskeletons can be further developed in many other
ways, thus widening their uses. With the incorporation of technologies such as wearable
sensors and biomechanical algorithms, the exoskeletons may be able to train
people to properly lift weights (Zelik, 2019). One of the biggest causes for injury when
lifting weights is doing so with incorrect form. Training someone to lift
weights properly takes a lot of time, and yet even with good form that people
can still get hurt. With this upgrade, exoskeletons will be able to accelerate
the learning process for users, which in turn reduces injuries. Furthermore,
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, people
often look down at their devices straining their necks which affects doing
tasks. Surgeons face strained necks as well as they lean forward for long
periods of time during procedures, as mentioned by Zelik. Strained neck may
affect a surgeon’s ability to operate which may cause a patient’s life. These examples
show that through the incorporation of different technologies, exoskeletons can
widen its uses and enhance the lives of more people.
However, the improvement of exoskeletons will require
decades and millions of dollars to possibly develop significant breakthrough to
solve the stated shortcomings, allowing the exoskeleton to enhance the lives of
users. Perhaps there might be cheaper and quicker solutions to the problems. To
improve physical wellbeing of laborers, development of fully autonomous and
high precision robots may be able to do the job and thus,
reducing the risk of physical labours getting injured. 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 avoid the
exoskeleton’s innovation process entirely.
In conclusion, there are challenges to overcome to enhance the
lives of users. Challenges include the exoskeleton being too expensive and
bulky, making it undesirable to the public and even to most current users. However,
with further developments widening the capabilities of exoskeletons, it will be
able to not only further enhance the lives of users but also enhance the lives
of more people.
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
Thanks for the revision.
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