I can safely say that this is one of our best podcast episodes yet! Checking in ten years after the first WearRAcon Innovation Challenge!

In Episode 32 of the Robotics and Exoskeletons Podcast, Professor Thomas Sugar and Bobby Marinov revisit the seven WearRA Innovation Challenges held from 2016 through 2022 and ask what became of the memorable ideas. We trace projects ranging from HART Lab’s human-modeling work and EduExo’s educational kit to the Compact X-scissors shoulder mechanism, JAPET’s Atlas back-support system, soft robotic orthotics, adaptive casts, and a smart insole for diabetic-foot monitoring. Along the way, we share which projects became products or companies, and which continued as influential research.

YouTube Version:

Topics:

• 0:00 Introduction – Where Are the Winners Now?
• 2:36 How the WearRA Innovation Challenge Worked
• 4:39 2016 – HART Lab, Standards, and Early Concepts
• 9:35 2017 – EduExo’s Path from Prototype to Product
• 15:01 2018 – Compact X-scissors and Liftya
• 21:54 2019 – JAPET Atlas and the Biggest Challenge Yet
• 27:03 2020 – A Virtual Challenge and Soft Robotic Orthotics
• 29:25 2021 – VR Exoskeletons and Exo360
• 33:45 2022 – Smart Insoles and Diabetic Foot Monitoring
• 41:41 The End of the Original Innovation Challenge
• 48:06 Thanking the People Behind the Challenge
• 52:35 Outro

Direct Embed Audio-Only Version:

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Summary Transcript:

The episode begins as a trip through the history of the WearRA Innovation Challenge, which was held seven times between 2016 and 2022. Tom and Bobby explain that the competition gave academics, students, individual inventors, and small companies an opportunity to exhibit their prototypes, deliver a short pitch in front of the full conference, and compete for jury and audience awards. Beyond the prize money, the Challenge offered something especially valuable to early-stage teams: a chance to validate an idea and receive feedback directly from the wearable-robotics community.

The retrospective starts in 2016 with UC Berkeley’s Human-Assistive Robotic Technologies, or HART, Lab. Robert Matthew presented work on affordable human modeling, biomechanical assessment, exoskeleton evaluation, and standardization. Bobby recalls that this entry helped introduce him to the importance of standards and eventually contributed to his involvement with ASTM Committee F48 and the Exo Technology Center of Excellence. Other unusually forward-looking entries that year included Arizona State University’s Cooler Suit and a West Point hip exoskeleton with its mechanism positioned toward the front of the body.

In 2017, Volker Bartenbach’s EduExo won both the judges’ award and the audience favorite award. The original concept was an accessible, hands-on educational kit that would allow students and enthusiasts to assemble and experiment with a powered elbow exoskeleton. The project subsequently developed into a commercial product line, including the EduExo, EduExo Pro, and maker-oriented materials, while Bartenbach went on to help establish Auxivo. Bobby demonstrates an EduExo Pro during the episode and discloses that he recently became an official North American distributor for it.

The 2018 winner was Aalborg University’s Compact X-scissors Device, a low-profile mechanism created to address the difficult biomechanics of the human shoulder. Tom and Bobby discuss why the shoulder is particularly challenging for wearable robotics: a device must accommodate several interacting rotations without becoming bulky, restrictive, or uncomfortable. The underlying spherical hinge technology later continued through Liftya, and Bobby describes being able to try a newer version of the system years after seeing the original competition prototype.

The 2019 Innovation Challenge had the largest field of competitors and, according to the hosts, was statistically the most difficult year to win. First place went to Atlas by JAPET, a motorized back-support system designed to move with the torso while providing an alternative path for gravitational forces and relieving pressure on the lower spine. Bobby and Tom reflect on how much JAPET expanded after the competition. They also revisit GripX, the runner-up, and Project PawsAble, the audience favorite, which proposed soft robotic assistance for dogs experiencing mobility problems.

WearRAcon and the Innovation Challenge moved online in 2020. The winner was Arizona State University’s Soft Robotic Ankle-Foot Orthosis, or SR-AFO, which used fabric-based pneumatic actuators to create a compliant wearable capable of providing plantarflexion assistance. The hosts note that this particular prototype may not have become a commercial product, but its underlying ideas belong to a much broader and still-active research direction involving soft actuators, textile wearables, and dynamic alternatives to rigid orthotic braces.

The 2021 competition included an ambitious full-body virtual-reality exoskeleton concept intended to let users physically experience resistance, impacts, stairs, crouching, and other simulated forces—a proposal Tom describes as an attempt to build something like a holodeck. The winner, however, was Exo360, with an adaptive exoskeleton-inspired casting system for fractures. The concept was designed to maintain stability while adjusting as swelling changed, addressing a limitation of traditional fixed casts. The company subsequently concentrated on the Exo360 Wrist for wrist-fracture treatment.

In 2022, top honors went to XtremedX’s Temperature and Pressure, or TAP, Sensing Insole. The system was designed to monitor the feet of people at risk of diabetic foot ulceration and provide earlier warning of potentially dangerous pressure or temperature changes. This leads Tom and Bobby into a wider discussion of diabetic foot complications, amputations, and healthcare costs, illustrating how wearable robotics sits at the intersection of engineering, biomechanics, medicine, rehabilitation, and preventative care.

The 2022 event proved to be the final WearRA Innovation Challenge in its original form. WearRA held another United States conference in New Orleans in 2023 and continued its European activities through WearRAcon Europe, the ExoWorkAthlon, and ExoPark at A+A in Düsseldorf, but the annual competition itself did not return. Tom and Bobby express hope that a future group of volunteers, organizers, and sponsors might eventually revive something similar.

Looking across all seven years, the hosts emphasize that success should not be measured only by whether every entry became a mass-produced exoskeleton. Some winners entered academia, some technologies became commercial products, some formed the foundations of startup companies, and others contributed ideas that became increasingly relevant years later. The broader achievement was creating a venue in which unconventional concepts could be presented, challenged, refined, and remembered by the people helping to build the industry.

The episode closes with a more personal reflection on the ten years that Tom, Bobby, and many other members of the community have spent building WearRA, conferences, standards initiatives, directories, catalogs, and communication resources. They thank Bruce Florsheim and Amy Gallagher for doing much of the organizational work behind the Innovation Challenge, along with its sponsors, judges, presenters, and competitors. Bobby concludes that the participants did not waste their time: even where the original project changed direction, the teams used the exposure, feedback, and experience to learn and move forward.

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