Wearable Robots: Taking a Leap From the Lab to the Real World [From the Guest Editors]

The articles in this special section examine the market for wearable robots. Wearable robots have the potential to improve our lives in countless ways. People with weakened limbs could use exoskeletons to augment their strength and retrain lost motor abilities, thus enabling them to successfully perform the activities of daily living. Similarly, workers of the future could use wearable robots to avoid musculoskeletal injuries and receive augmented feedback to enhance their performance. Wearable robots could even be used in sports, helping athletes to move faster and farther. Until recently, wearable robots were largely limited to controlled laboratory conditions due to issues that can be broadly divided into hardware, software, and evaluations. These articles highlight some of the latest innovations in the development of robust, intelligent wearable robots and real-world evaluation scenarios.