Socio-economic impact of medical lower-limb Exoskeletons

A constructive debate is ongoing among experts and academics about the social and economic impacts of advanced robotics. Exoskeleton robotic suits represent one of the most significant examples of what Human-Oriented Robotics is. After recent technological advances, the range of application fields of these devices has widened with respect to the first applications about teleoperation and power amplification. The aim of this paper is to contribute to the ongoing discussion by offering a vision of the possible future developments in terms of socio-economic impacts, resulting from the increasing use of Exoskeleton Robots, especially with regard to their applications in lower limb medical rehabilitation. In order to provide a concrete contribution to the current state-of-the-art, we are working on an alternative exoskeleton design approach to overcome the identified limits to the diffusion of this new technology. The achieved results are presented in the final part.