PhoeniX (medical suit)
About
After graduating in Dec 2018, I started working full-time under Professor Kazerooni’s (from UC Berkeley) exoskeleton startup, suitX. suitX provides technology to enhances users’ lives in the production and medical industries. The industrial line is targeted at manufacturing and features mainly passive torque generation in the legs, back, and shoulders. The medical PhoeniX suit is an active exoskeleton aimed at helping lower-limb mobility-limited individuals walk upright and support them in becoming more mobile. Those two lines are currently available to the public, but I worked on adapting those technologies and building upon them on the R&D side.
Contributions
As part of the R&D mechanical team, I gained insight and experience with designing to align and follow the human body. I eventually spearheaded development in the remote-actuation recreational device as a main mechanical designer. In that role I CADed and 3D printed waves of prototypes before sending out drawings for manufacturing in China to test metal version out. After planning and building robust test jigs for collecting life data on hardware components, I’ve also developed my intuition in designing machines for longevity and aggressive usage. I put together the designs myself, and in doing so I rapidly developed my manual milling and general machine shop skills. I am currently working on the patent for my unique actuated joint on this recreational device, and a rev 1 for this product will be released to early adopters soon.
The technology I helped develop in that device was also adapted for part of the delivery in a multimillion dollar contract iterating on this military exosuit. As the first version of the suit, it had issues with bulkiness and uncomfortable bracing that could be addressed with remote actuation and better joint configuration.
Skills
SolidWorks, Mechatronics with embedded systems, Design for manufacturing and assembly, Iterative prototyping, Manual milling and general machine shop usage, Human-centered design