JUNE 25, 2024
EXOSKELETON REPORT
ISSUE NO 8
ISSUE 8
INTERVIEW TOM ILLAUER FOUNDER OF ORTHEXO
COVERAGE WEARRACON 23 A+A TRADE FAIR & EXOWORKATHLON
CONTENTS PAGE 3-7 INTERVIEW
Sebastian Orth & Tom Illauer share their journey in starting and running Orthexo as well as their thoughts for the future of exo technology.
PAGE 8-11 EXOWORKATHLON AND WEARRACON EUROPE 2023
Dr. Thomas Sugar, director of WearRA, conveys his take on WearRAcon 23 Europe, the A+A Trade Fair, and an overview of ExoWorkAthlon and its goals.
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ISSUE 8 | JUNE 25, 2024
ISSUE 8 PAGE 12-13 INTERSECTION BETWEEN FIRST RESPONDERS AND EXO TECHNOLOGY Exo Games 2024 open to the public GOGOA completes EXO-RESCUE Project
PAGE 14-17 HEADLINE NEWS
PAGE 18-19 EXOSKELETON EVENTS CALENDAR
ISSUE 8| JUNE 25, 2024
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Interview With SEBASTIAN ORTH Advisor for Orthexo.de
TOM ILLAUER Founder of Orthexo.de Conducted: Jan, 2024 Left: Sebastian Orth; Right: Tom Illauer
1. ExR: How and when did you discover exoskeleton technology?
2. ExR: What personally interests you the most about exo technology?
Tom: I was Chief Marketing Officer at Germany's largest medical supply retailer. Sebastian and I worked there together for 4 years. As a master orthopaedic technician, he was in charge of purchasing for orthopaedics and built up the medical exoskeleton division there. It was at this company that I had the opportunity to test the Rewalk for the first time. A 33-year-old patient tested the device after a motorcycle accident. We filmed everything with a drone, his family was there and everyone had tears in their eyes. However, the patient was not interested in walking as such, but in being able to see eye-to-eye with his wife again.
Sebastian: It's not about one advantage or one technology, but about looking at the big picture. We have a market-ready technology that would make the entire country barrier-free. We can enable patients to walk again and protect workers from damage to their health. Exoskeletons can solve both problems. So it's a technology that can really make a difference in the world.
VISIT ORTHEXO.DE
Sebastian: As an orthopaedic technician, I have carried out patient care and fabricated all types of orthotic fittings. Basically, every orthosis is a type of exoskeleton. In 2016, we had a paraplegic jockey in a neurological clinic and were able to fit him with an exoskeleton.This result inspired me. PAGE 4 | EXOSKELETON REPORT
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3. ExR: Why did you decide to create a brand new company and organization rather that partner and expand upon an existing one? Tom: After the story with the Rewalk, I pitched to the shareholder that we should make this technology available to more people here. He didn't want to put any resources into it. So I started a blog. After a few months, the first inquiries came in from patients and companies with hundreds of questions. These were not related to studies, but to practical use. I looked for a partner who was much fitter in the subject than I was and found Sebastian. He took over the consultations and the expert position. As we are writing about medical products, there are liability risks in Germany, so we decided to turn it into a limited company. Now you have to imagine that to this day we both work fulltime as managers or CEOs in other large companies, at the same time we have received daily inquiries and so we have invested more time to make the platform better and better, to enable all languages, to build the AI configurator and much more. It was important for us to learn quickly from our customers. To date, we have provided almost 300 free consultations, tested 60 solutions ourselves, are available in 22 countries and 7 languages and work closely with 9 manufacturers.
Orthexo Logo, all images courtesy of Orthexo.de ISSUE 8| JUNE 25, 2024
4. ExR: Do you think military, medical, occupational/industrial, sport exoskeletons are still similar enough that they can be under one umbrella, or should they be branched off. (For example, ExR tries to cover all exo technology, while IISART covers only medical.) Sebastian: I believe that you should not do this. If we were to relaunch, we would also not display all categories on one website, but on different ones. The term exoskeleton is also too generic and has too much room for interpretation. Exoskeletons range from improved back orthoses to self-balancing high-tech rehab solutions. This makes it all the more important to separate the classes and develop separate standards, separate associations and separate expectations for each of them. But the most important thing is to talk about it together. EXOSKELETON REPORT | PAGE 5
5. ExR: What are the two top things that you think are holding back exoskeleton products from seeing an explosive, exponential increase in sales and adoption? Tom: I will mention 3 points: 1. attention. I have been active as a CMO in companies for 17 years. If there's one thing missing, it's attention. Nobody knows an exoskeleton. This is analogous to the E-Bike. You need a critical mass for the technology to generate organic demand. But for that to happen, everyone has to know someone who uses it. So it has to be used in an inflationary, decentralized way. We need an Elon Musk effect. If he presents the new Tesla with an exoskeleton, we'll have a market from 0 to 100. Testimonials should play a much bigger role!
2. In my opinion, manufacturers are not where the daily attention is. Most manufacturers have brilliant developers and minds, but no marketers or fill them with marketing people who previously did something completely different. Where does the attention economy take place in our world? On marketplaces like Amazon, on Tik Tok with shorts and on moving images on YouTube. We as a collective are not represented there. PAGE 6 | EXOSKELETON REPORT
3. more focus on customer groups. Due to the high number of consultations and the fact that we get feedback after every test, we have feedback from over 300 tests from real users. Sometimes this is still shocking. Exoskeletons for the trades do not allow you to wear a tool belt or prevent you from climbing ladders. Another example: You have to intrinsically motivate people to wear the exoskeleton in the long term. Every 5th person asks us if they can get the exoskeleton with the company logo. To generate a market for everyone, we should simply all work together much more, book testimonials together, provide material for an exoskeleton Instagram and Tik Tok channel, share customer feedback from tests and swap nonmatching customers.
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6. ExR: Where do you see the future of AI and exoskeleton technology? Tom & Sebastian: A cycle is created first. The hardware collects data and this allows us to develop better hardware. The exoskeletons become more networked with the environment. Wearables could be linked to the exoskeleton. The exoskeleton recognizes the pulse and knows when a break is necessary based on the number of steps. A GPS recognizes that you are in front of a staircase. A lidar sensor recognizes three-dimensional space and warns of tripping hazards. The AI recognizes the light from the forklift and vibrates if you are in danger. The exoskeleton recognizes signs of fatigue based on sweat production. Exoskeletons work hand in hand with tools. We will also be combining normal clothing with exosuits. Exoskeletons could use AI to recognize rooms and automatically deactivate themselves in the break room or toilet. Emergency call buttons could trigger an alarm in the event of accidents at work and even log them. This would have another advantage: you wouldn't just sell one exoskeleton worn by 5 employees, but one exoskeleton per employee. These are just a few examples where I believe that development can benefit greatly. ISSUE 8| JUNE 25, 2024
And that is precisely the crux of the matter. At the moment, customer inquiries are still higher than production capacity. Every manufacturer is currently increasing this and looking for retailers per country. But these three things will change the world. When production costs fall due to AI and more demand, more people will be able to buy exoskeletons. As a result, more people will pay attention to them, companies will continue to increase production capacity, exoskeletons will become cheaper due to fixed cost degression and so on. We are therefore looking forward to what happens next.
ORTHEXO.DE Founded in 2022, Orthexo.de has quickly established itself as a guide and lead generator for industrial/occupational and medical exoskeletons. It’s ranked highly in over 22 countries and is available in multiple languages. The site features its own AI-configured chatbot that helps compare exoskeleton devices from over 150 producers, including advantages, costs, features, areas of application and much more.
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