Our Innovation Analysts recently looked into emerging technologies and up-and-coming startups working on innovative Industry 4.0 solutions. As there is a large number of startups working on a wide variety of solutions, we decided to share our insights with you. This time, we are taking a look at 5 promising wearable robotics startups.
Heat Map: 5 Top Wearable Robotics Startups
Using our StartUs Insights Discovery Platform, covering 1.379.000+ startups & scaleups globally, we looked at innovation in the field of advanced robotics. For this research, we identified 122 relevant solutions and picked 5 to showcase below. These companies were chosen based on a data-driven startup scouting approach, taking into account factors such as location, founding year, and relevance of technology, among others. Depending on your specific criteria, the top picks might look entirely different.
The Global Startup Heat Map below highlights 5 startups & scaleups developing innovative wearable robotics solutions. Moreover, the Heat Map reveals regions that observe a high startup activity and illustrates the geographic distribution of all 122 companies we analyzed for this specific topic.
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Trexo Robotics – Pediatric Rehabilitation
Wearable robots, also known as exoskeletons, combine wearables and robotics to assist people in different use cases. For patients recovering from lower limb injuries, wearable robotics offer solutions for rehabilitation. Wearable robotics, worn like garments, enhance rehabilitation by providing higher intensity and frequency of treatment. Moreover, they also enable continuous performance monitoring.
Trexo Robotics is a Canadian startup that develops a robotics solution for pediatric rehabilitation. The startup’s wearable robots help children with disabilities walk independently. The robots also help correct endurance and gait to support children suffering from cerebral palsy, spinal cord injury, muscular dystrophy, stroke, and other conditions.
Tendo – Assistive Glove
Certain diseases and medical conditions cause a permanent loss of physical and mobility functions. While these circumstances render patients unable to perform routine daily tasks, robotics gives a helping hand without causing any discomfort. Addressing this issue, startups develop lightweight wearable robotics that assists patients in carrying out simple tasks.
Swedish startup Tendo provides an assistive glove technology for artificial strength. The startup’s product consists of a control unit placed on the arm and a glove unit that covers one or two fingers, as well as wires that connect them like tendons. Additionally, the slim exoskeleton is made of soft material to help people with high spinal cord injuries grip, hold, and release objects.
Bionic Lift – Workplace Optimization
Wearable robotics solutions also find applications in warehouses and factories, where they help workers lift heavy weights and carry out other labor-intensive tasks. By augmenting human strength, these solutions allow workers to be more efficient and, thereby, optimize operations. This eliminates the need for fully automated robotics for cases where complete automation is either expensive or difficult to implement.
Bionic Lift is a US-based startup that develops an exoskeleton to augment and mechanize industrial workers. Skelex 360 features force adjustment, detachable arm cup, easily adjustable arm length, and width and height adjustment. It also uses FlexFrame, a flexible device that releases energy occasionally to compensate for gravity. The 5.5 pounds (2.5 kgs) exoskeleton fits like a backpack and provides the worker 14 pounds (6.3 kgs) of overhead lift assist.
Auxivo – Workplace Safety
Industries like construction, logistics, and manufacturing witness high levels of workplace injuries. These contribute to high employee turnover and eventually, loss of productivity. Startups are working on wearable robotics solutions that improve general workplace safety. These lower the physical burden on the workers and also monitor the posture while executing different tasks.
Swiss startup Auxivo develops wearable robotics solutions for worker safety. LiftSuit is a lightweight exoskeleton that supports back and hip muscles while lifting heavy items. The exoskeleton features textile springs and works as a set of additional, external muscles. The solution enhances the safety of workers that lift heavy objects or work in forward-leaning positions for long hours.
Dephy – Walking Augmentation
In addition to the disabled and patients undergoing rehabilitation, wearable robotics hold promise for the improvement of quality of life for other users as well. Since wearable robots are becoming lighter, startups are exploring their use for general purposes. A popular category of non-patient solutions includes the augmentation of walking and running, leading to a smoother and more pleasant experience.
Dephy is a US-based startup that provides performance-enhancing wearable robotics. ExoBoot is an autonomous exoskeleton for walking augmentation that uses actuator modules with custom footwear. The startup also offers ActPack, an open application programming interface (API), for prosthetic limbs and other products.
What About The Other 117 Solutions?
While we believe data is key to creating insights it can be easy to be overwhelmed by it. Our ambition is to create a comprehensive overview and provide actionable innovation intelligence and enable you to achieve your goals faster. The 5 wearable robotics startups showcased above are promising examples out of 122 we analyzed for this article. To identify the most relevant solutions based on your specific criteria, get in touch.
