Hocoma AG

Let’s start with the dinosaur in the industry. Founded in 1996 and located in Volketswil near Zürich, Hocoma AG introduced one of the first (if not the first) exoskeletons into the market: the Lokomat gait rehabilitation device. Today the company is offering a large variety of rehabilitation devices including the Lokomat and the arm rehabilitation exoskeletons Armeo Power (based on technology developed at ETH Zürich) and Armeo Spring (based on technology developed at the University of California, Irvine).

Website: www.hocoma.com

Noonee AG

Another pioneering exoskeleton company that early (that is around 2013 in the exoskeleton history books) focused on a passive industrial exoskeleton design and presented the “chairless chair”, a leg exoskeleton that allows its users to sit anywhere to relieve the legs. The chairless chair was designed for workers who have to stand most of the day. Noonee is a Spin-off of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich (ETH Zürich).

Website: www.noonee.com

Rehabilitation Engineering Lab at ETH Zürich

The Rehabilitation Engineering Lab (Prof. Roger Gassert) at ETH Zürich has several exoskeleton projects in its research portfolio. The team develops exoskeleton technology to explore, assess, and restore human sensorimotor function. This includes the “ETH Knee Perturbator”, a knee exoskeleton that basically makes you stumble and then measures how your body reacts (see video below), the hand exoskeleton “tenoexo” that restores hand function for example in stroke patients, and the gait exoskeleton VariLeg that enables users with paraplegia to walk again.

Websites: www.relab.ethz.ch and www.varileg.ch

Sensory-Motor Systems Lab at ETH Zürich

The Sensory Motor Systems Lab (Prof. Robert Riener) is another research lab at ETH Zürich with an exoskeleton program. Among its developments is for example the “ARMin” arm rehabilitation exoskeleton that was eventually commercialized by Hocoma (then named Armeo power), and several research exoskeletons and exosuits. It was also at the Sensory-Motor Systems Lab where the idea for the Cybathlon was born.

Website: www.sms.hest.ethz.ch

MyoSwiss AG

The MyoSwiss AG in Zürich, an ETH Spin-off from the Sensory-Motor Systems Lab, develops a soft lower limb exosuit called the "Myosuit". The suit supports the leg functions of people with muscle weakness in order for them to regain their mobility and independence.

Website: www.myo.swiss

 TWIICE (EPFL Lausanne)

For our next entry we will enter the French-speaking part of Switzerland (for anyone who is not familiar with Switzerland: a population of around eight million people thought that it is a good idea to speak four different languages. As a result English is often the common ground, which is of course not one of these languages). Hosted at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), the TWIICE exoskeleton is a gait restoration exoskeleton that enables users with paraplegia to walk again. It also allows its users to execute difficult tasks such as climbing stairs.

Website: www.twiice.ch

AUTONOMYO (EPFL Lausanne)

Staying in the French-speaking part and at EPFL, the AUTONOMYO is the third lower limb gait support exoskeleton. Hosted at the EPFL Laboratory of Robotic Systems, the goal is to provide a gait support system that does not require crutches to keep the user balanced. Target users included for example people with multiple sclerosis.

Website: www.autonomyo.ch/home

Beyond Robotics GmbH

That’s us! Although you might rather be familiar with the name „EduExo“, Beyond Robotics GmbH is our company that manufactures and sells the EduExo kits. Our goal is to make exoskeleton technology more accessible and understandable by providing quality information and learning material together with affordable DIY exoskeleton hardware. So far, the EduExo kit is our only product. It has been fully released in September 2017 and has been very successfully adopted by private users, schools and universities all around the world. We have many ideas and even prototypes of several extensions and other products. But momentarily we simply do not have enough time, as we all are fully involved in research and other exoskeleton start-ups that pretty sure will soon be included into this list.

Website: www.beyond-robotics.com

 Cybathlon

No article about the Swiss exoskeleton landscape would be complete without mentioning one of the biggest public exoskeleton events today: the Cybathlon exoskeleton race. The Cybathlon is an event organized by ETH Zürich. It has several disciplines that feature athletes with different physical impairments using state of the art assistive technology to race each other in a friendly competition. For the exoskeleton race you will see four identical tracks next to each other in a stadium, eight tasks on each track to solve and a time limit of 10 minutes. Exoskeleton users with paraplegia demonstrated their skills and the newest gait exoskeleton technology during the first event in 2016. The VariLeg and the TWIICE exoskeletons (see above) both participated and achieved the 5th and 4th place in the exoskeleton discipline.

The next big event is scheduled for 2020. In between, there are several smaller events that are hosted worldwide and include local exoskeleton races. So take a look at their website and see if there is something planned in your area.

Website: www.cybathlon.ethz.ch