Researchers from Northern Arizona University (NAU) have developed an open-source robotic exoskeleton that promises to help people with disabilities to walk again.

According to its developers, the open-source exoskeleton framework is freely available to anyone worldwide and is designed to be biomechanically beneficial to the wearer.

Source: NAU

Dubbed OpenExo, the open-source system offers instructions for constructing a single- or multi-joint exoskeleton, and includes design files, code and step-by-step guides.

"Our project is important to the research community because it significantly lowers the barriers to entry," the researchers explained. "In a time of diminishing federal grant funding, open-source systems like OpenExo have become increasingly critical for facilitating state-of-the-art research on robot-aided rehabilitation and mobility augmentation."

The NAU-developed exoskeleton has already been used to help children with cerebral palsy and it has also been used to help patients with gait disorders and disabilities with their rehabilitation.

An article detailing the exoskeleton, “OpenExo: An Open-Source Modular Exoskeleton to Augment Human Function,” appears in the journal Science Robotics.