The Long and Winding Road to Symbiotic Wearable Robotics [Young Professionals]

Reports on the market for wearable robotics and discusses applications for its use. Among the new frontiers of research, wearable robotics is increasingly prominent. Robots and humans have often represented two entities that exist without sharing common spaces (as in the industrial realm where humans and robots are separated by safety fences), but the road taken envisions a future where artificial and biological systems aim at a truly symbiotic interaction. Wearable robotics has been expanding in several areas, embracing the civilian and industrial domains. The adoption of smart spring-loaded mechanisms and new materials comprising polymers, carbon fibers, and textiles, complemented with novel smart sensing- actuation and human-in-the-loop control strategies, is opening a wide scenario where the exoskeletons and exosuits market is expected to grow to US$5.2 billion by 2025.