Concept: French health tech startup, Wandercraft has launched a personal self-balanced exoskeleton called Atalante for the treatment of patients with mobility disabilities. The completely self-reliant walking system aims to provide novel care for patients by enabling them to move around in a realistic, hands-free, crutch-free manner.
Nature of Disruption: Atalante makes training skilled motor performance easier by mobilizing the trunk and upper limbs in realistic tasks. It equips therapists to deliver task-oriented, difficult, stimulating, non-repetitive, and close-to-daily-life training programs that are thought to enhance neuroplasticity. The solution is employed as a motorized exoskeleton for the lower body, including the hips, knees, and ankles, as well as for self-balancing. With intuitive controls and programming to handle obstacles, the exoskeleton eliminates the need for crutches or a walker while delivering a more natural movement and flexible level of assistance. Its hands-free function permits upper limbs and trunk mobility, as well as almost effortless early-stage verticalization and overground walking, ensuring consistent sensory feedback. To reach a therapeutic threshold, Atalante allows for multiple task-specific repetitions with minimal effort from both the patient and the therapist. In addition, it can help both the patient and the therapist save time during training. Atalante allows clinicians to make therapy activities more relevant and explicit with the patient’s specific goals, improving therapeutic engagement.
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Outlook: With Atalante, Wandercraf intends to transform mobility, potentially improving the health of millions of individuals who need wheelchairs. It boasts that the solution is used by rehabilitation and neurological facilities in Europe and North America. The exoskeleton is easy to use and allows users to get the most out of their rehabilitation sessions by spending as little time as possible on setup and training. In January 2022, Wandercraft raised $45M in a Series C funding round led by US fund Quadrant Management. The startup plans to use the funding to continue developing the personal exoskeleton for use in the outdoors and at home, as well as to speed up the deployment of Atalante in the United States.
This article was originally published in Verdict.co.uk
