YouTube Version: All the exoskeleton and wearable robotics news for January 25, 2026, in under 22 minutes:

Classical Newsletter Version:

Text Only Version:

After the successful reception of the first newsletter email repeating the experiment this week too. These emails are getting rather long, while more and more people prefer to consume new information via media formats.

HeroWear Shares Long-Term Safety Data on Apex Exosuit Deployments: 311,000 Work Hours, Fewer Injuries, and no Sign of “Risk Shifting”

311,000+ work hours across five distribution centers, longitudinal industry study using a natural experiment design.

Wearable Robots You Can Wear Like Clothes: Automatic Weaving of “Fabric Muscle” Brings Commercialization Closer

KIMM’s clothing-type wearable robot simultaneously assists 3 joints (elbow, shoulder, and waist) while staying under ~2 kg, which is unusual for multi-joint support in a garment form factor. Instead of motors or pneumatics, it’s actuated by coil-shaped SMA “yarn” (similar in principle to Nitinol/shape-memory “memory wire”) that can be continuously woven into “fabric muscles,” rather than used as straight wires, enabling lightweight, flexible textile actuators.

Impact of a shoulder exosuit on range of motion, endurance, and task execution in users with neurological impairments

A portable shoulder gravity-compensation exosuit can meaningfully help endurance and some real-world reaching mechanics, but it’s not yet a clean ROM booster, and the interface/comfort needs work.

Wandercraft says the first patient has been enrolled (January 21, 2026) in a prospective interventional pilot trial at Brigham and Women’s Hospital to test whether its hands-free, self-balancing Atalante X can safely enable earlier ICU mobilization for fragile post–thoracic surgery patients. The study will assess safety/feasibility/usability, and whether the exoskeleton can reduce the staffing burden required to get critically ill patients upright and walking.

CYBERDYNE Signs Strategic MoU with Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) …in the United States through Collaboration with the Pittsburgh Medical and Healthcare Ecosystem

“CYBERDYNE and the School of Computer Science (“SCS”) at CMU will explore collaboration with a focus on CYBERDYNE’s core domains of Cybernics and Physical AI—AI operating in physical spaces, including AI-driven robotic systems. The two parties seek to foster the creation of a new medical and healthcare industry ecosystem centered on innovative Cybernics technologies, including Physical AI.”

NAVEE Announces Exo-Fit

The micro-mobility and electric scooters company has announced multiple initiatives for its future, including a consumer knee exoskeleton.

What It’s Like to Wear an Exoskeleton Every Day for a Week

First of its kind tech video that I know of – an entire week of Hypershell use. Note: I don’t agree 100% with what is being said, but it’s a step forward towards understanding exoskeleton technology. Imagine more tech influencers using consumer exoskeletons for weeks before reviewing or talking about them.

U.S. Air Force Central (AFCENT) Leadership visits 386th AEW

Airmen with the 386th AEW (Kuwait?) are trialing Roam Robotics’ Forge exoskeleton for airfield logistics tasks (loading/maintenance), reporting less fatigue and early productivity gains up to ~40%, as the Air Force works toward formal requirements and broader adoption decisions.

Mechatronics in Healthcare (UTFORSK 2024): EduExo enters the classroom

A new international education collaboration, Mechatronics in Healthcare, funded by Norway’s UTFORSK 2024program, is bringing mechatronics and healthcare closer together across partners in Norway, Brazil, Japan, and North America. The team has repurposed laboratory activities to focus on healthcare applications, using educational exoskeletons from Auxivo AG alongside teaching-oriented tools from MathWorks, with the intent of bringing real-world healthcare challenges directly into the classroom.

Community update (IEEE RAS Wearable Robotics TC)

EEE RAS’s Technical Committee on Wearable Robotics announced a new leadership team for the current cycle: Jan Babič, Marta Gherardini, Marko Jamšek, Inseung Kang, and Modar Hassan, and thanked the outgoing co-chairs for their service. To boost community activity and communication, the TC has launched/activated new channels, including an updated webpage, a Facebook Group for sharing research/opportunities and receiving regular conference/workshop/event updates, and a YouTube channel intended as a shared video repository (they’re inviting submissions via ieee.wearable.robotics@gmail.com).

Hacking Biomechanics

New Substack group from the UK focused on biomechanics and wearable mobility technology.

Open-source pose tracking tools like OpenPose, MediaPipe, DeepLabCut, RTMPose, Pose2Sim (plus OpenSim as an integration) are becoming a key part of markerless motion analysis workflows in biomechanics.

Also, the events calendar and more open job positions in the field than ever before at the same time.

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