Wearable Robots
According to industry sources, the Hyundai Motor Group is planning to unveil the H-MEX, a wearable robot for medical applications, in the first half of this year for clinical trials. This robot is to help paraplegic patients to walk on their own. It is expected that the robot will be able to be manufactured from 2020.
In the meantime, the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology is working on the Robin as a rehab robot for stroke patients. It is predicted to become commercially available within a couple of years, at a price of 50 million won to 100 million won per unit.
Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, on its part, is developing wearable robots that can be utilized at industrial sites. A robot that is capable of lifting an object with a weight of 60 kg or so is forecast to be released by the shipbuilder early next year.
At present, pioneers in the wearable robot industry include eLegs developed in the United States, ReWalk of Israel and Japan’s HAL. Last year, Honda said it would lease the WAD for daily living assistance, too.
“Although the United States and Japan developed and commercialized this type of robots earlier than Korea did, the technical gap is relatively narrow now,” said a robotics expert, adding, “Wearable robots are expected to be in popular use in Korea from 2020 with its research on the technology already having a history of a decade or so.”