“Tens of thousands of yuan worth ‘walking add-ons’ actually cause arthritis?”

“Tens of thousands of yuan worth ‘walking add-ons’ actually cause arthritis?”

After Li Rui spent nearly 20,000 yuan to buy an exoskeleton robot for his mother, the excessive weight of the device worsened his lumbar disc herniation and triggered arthritis. The exoskeleton robot industry is growing rapidly both domestically and internationally. By 2025, China’s market size is expected to exceed 1.6 billion yuan, with the medical rehabilitation sector accounting for the majority of the market share. Leng Yuchuan, a professor at Harbin Institute of Technology (Shenzhen), explained that household exoskeleton robots are divided into simple models and wearable designs; the latter provide walking assistance and gait correction for patients with autonomous walking ability. Pan Yu, director of the Rehabilitation Medicine Department at Tsinghua University Beijing Tsinghua Changgung Hospital, pointed out that patients with spinal cord injuries, stroke, and other neurological diseases are common users of these robots. However, blind use may cause unnecessary damage; it is necessary to take patients to the hospital for a condition assessment before use. Yang Zhihao, product director at Shanghai Fuliye Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd., said that exoskeleton robots can free rehabilitation therapists from having to hold the patient’s hands, and high-intensity repetitive training helps stimulate nerve pathway repair. Cheng Hong from the University of Electronic Science and Technology introduced that the working principle of exoskeleton robots consists of three modules: perception, decision-making, and execution, allowing patients to complete gait cycles with motor assistance...