Episode 18: Nearly Two Decades of Medical Exoskeleton Trials with Dr. Arun Jayaraman

Welcome to Episode 18 of the Exoskeletons and Wearable Robotics Podcast. We continue our discussion of medical exoskeletons and physical rehabilitation robotics, this time, joined by Dr. Arun Jayaraman, Executive Director, Technology & Innovation Hub (tiHUB) at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab. Few people on the planet have more hands-on experience; Arun has tested, evaluated, and implemented more rehabilitation exoskeleton systems than anyone else in the field. 

For more, please visit: 

Shirley Ryan AbilityLab: https://www.sralab.org

Wearable Robotics Association: https://wearablerobotics.com

Exoskeleton Report: http://exoskeletonreport.com

Special thanks to you, our Patreon supporters, for helping make this episode a reality! Please support this podcast at: https://www.patreon.com/exoskeletonreport/membership

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction
• 1:53 About the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab - Where Bioengineers and Clinicians Merge
• 8:53 Balancing expectations with investors and users.
• 19:37 Learning when to use medical exoskeletons
• 23:07 What are some success stories to highlight
• 26:11 Differentiating personal mobility vs physical rehabilitation
• 31:52 On the importance of working together
• 44:48 Example of working together - RehabWeek 2025 - Chicago
• 46:46 Differences in standard of care create & interpret results
• 49:50 Where do exoskeletons make a big difference? - Getting people to be more mobile.
• 58:02 Do you always need FDA approval?
• 59:48 The gains are there, even if the sales are not.
• 1:12:30 Final takeaways: building on existing work vs. starting from scratch.