Ekso Bionics Holdings Inc, whose lead product, the Ekso, is designed to help patients impacted by lower-extremity weakness stand and walk, has been accepted by the Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering (CSNE) as an industry partner. Ekso Bionics designs, develops, and commercializes exoskeletons, which may have a range of applications in the medical, military, industrial, and consumer markets.
An Ekso Bionics news release reports that the organizations will work together in an effort to enrich the human machine interface and enhance potential neural interface to create links between the nervous system and the outside world. The CSNE is based at the University of Washington and is one of 20 Engineering Research Centers (ERC) nationwide. ERCs are intended to promote partnerships across industries and universities in order to create a method of engineering research and education that integrates discovery with technological innovation.
Additional research partners include Microsoft, Intel, and Medtronic. The release notes that Ekso Bionics will collaborate with these existing partners to further CSNE’s ultimate goal, which centers on merging education, research, and innovation to rapidly advance technology and remain competitive in the global economy.
Russ Angold, Ekso Bionics co-founder, emphasizes the company’s “strong foundations” in the lab environment and notes, “We understand the challenges that come along with the desire to develop a new machine interface. Our exoskeleton platform enables CSNE to devote most of their time to research on the human machine interface.”
In the release, Rajesh Rao, director, Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering, associate professor of Computer Science & Engineering, the University of Washington, adds, “Our expertise in decoding and interpreting brain signals is a perfect complement to Ekso Bionics’ expertise in robotics and creating exoskeletons used in rehabilitation.”
The release also states that Rajesh is currently working on several projects, including brain-computer interface (BCI) control for a mobile robot.
[Source: Ekso Bionics Inc]
