December 16 news, according to the "Asia Daily" report, Samsung will launch the first commercial wearable exoskeleton robot in April next year. As early as the beginning of 2019, Samsung demonstrated the exoskeleton robot GEMS Hip, which can provide lower limb movement assistance for people with limited mobility and rehabilitation.
Samsung's new exoskeleton robot is an improved version of GEMS Hip, and the overall design is not too different from the previous generation. Samsung has confirmed to its partners that it is expected to go public in April next year, but some materials have not yet been finalized. The parts industry revealed that the improved model of the Samsung GEMS Hip exoskeleton robot is expected to sell about 30,000 units.
Exoskeleton robots are popular projects in the robot industry in recent years, and the design concept of civilian exoskeleton robots is generally to help injured patients recover from action. A few days ago, the Robot Research Center of the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China designed an exoskeleton robot for 66-year-old veteran Zhong Xingming to help the veteran who was wounded and paraplegic on a mission 40 years ago get back on his feet.
The picture shows the lower limb of Kenqi Technology helping the exoskeleton Ant-CH20
In 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that there are about 1 billion people with disabilities worldwide, 80% of whom live in developing countries. The total of 1 billion people with disabilities, how many people have mobility problems in the upper or lower limbs is not clear, but the number is definitely not less. These people are the target group of exoskeleton robots, which can alleviate their mobility problems.
However, from Samsung's estimated sales of 30,000 units to consider, the price of exoskeleton robots is definitely not cheap, the lowest is also 5 figures. But most of the disabled people live in developing countries, even if they live in developed countries, their own mobility is inconvenient, food, clothing, housing and transportation may be dependent on subsidies, how many people can come up with money to buy exoskeleton robots?
The picture shows the neomatsu exoskeleton robot
If you want to achieve the popularity of exoskeleton robots, you must wait until the technology is more mature, the cost is significantly reduced, and ordinary consumers can afford it. According to the report on the growth expectations of the global robot market released by the Boston Consulting Group, the global robot scale will be about $25 billion in 2020, and it is expected to reach 160 billion to 260 billion US dollars in 2030.
According to the speed of robot technology research and development, by that time, the technology of exoskeleton robots must have been very mature, no longer only for high-end consumers, and the price will be low enough for people with disabilities in developing countries to afford.