RE2 Awarded Exoskeleton Simulator Contract



By Danielle Lucey



Today, Pittsburgh company RE2 Inc. announced that it is partnering to develop an exoskeleton simulator system through a small business innovation research contract with the U.S. Army. 



The Biomechanical Exoskeleton Simulator System will assess the impact of carrying large loads on musculoskeletal health and performance. The company is partnering with Ekso Bionics, who specialize in exoskeletons, and Stanford’s Dr. Scott Delp, a leader in the neuromusculoskeletal simulator field.



The goal of the simulator is to accurately model the risk injury, metabolic loading and torque forces on the human body when carrying large loads with exoskeletal assistance. Military personnel currently carry very heavy loads for missions and field training operations. 



“By directly modeling the interaction between the operator and the exoskeleton while identifying potential injury mechanisms and issues before large-scale deployment of the device, the simulation system will reduce risk and enable improved design of new assistive technologies,” says Dr. Andrew B. Mor, principal scientist for RE2.



“The development of an exoskeleton simulator further advances our capabilities in the field of assistive robotics,” says Jorgen Pedersen, president and CEO of RE2. “Ultimately, this technology will mitigate the need for costly and time consuming experimentation with human test volunteers and reduce time to market for emerging robotic assistive devices.”