Orlando, FL — HeroWear and its exoskeleton go well with had been voted the winner of the National Safety Council’s third annual Safety Innovation Challenge.
Aimed at bringing collectively enterprise leaders and security innovators to attain the mission of stopping work-related musculoskeletal issues, the problem befell Wednesday throughout the Closing Keynote of the 2024 NSC Safety Congress & Expo.
HeroWear, a Nashville, TN-based maker of exoskeletons, gained a vote by an viewers of security professionals, beating out two different finalists. HeroWear will obtain a free one-year subscription to NSC’s Tech Hub Marketplace – a searchable know-how listing – together with precedence advantages through NSC’s MSD Solutions Lab’s Pilot Grant Program.
“Since the first day we started working on the suit back in 2017 and 2018 at Vanderbilt University, the goal has been to make them as invisible as possible, and to make it compatible with work so as many people as possible can use it,” mentioned HeroWear Vice President of Growth Paul Nicholson, who confirmed off the exoskeleton go well with’s key options.
Four panelists – together with NSC President and CEO Lorraine M. Martin and shutting keynote speaker Kate Darling, a analysis scientist on the Massachusetts Institute for Technology Media Lab – requested questions of the finalists after their three-minute introductory shows.
Nicholson highlighted the exoskeleton’s modular design and varied sizes, in addition to potential adjustment factors for its chest straps, leg sleeves and shoulder straps. He additionally drew consideration to the completely different sizes and strengths of the elastic bands that go alongside the consumer’s again.
“That lets us fit a very wide range of users,” Nicholson mentioned. “We’ve fit people over 7-foot-5, over 350 pounds, and we’ve fit people under 5-feet tall and under 80 pounds.”
The again bands “take 20% to 40% of the strain off of my back,” Nicholson added.
The problem’s different two finalists had been Hapo – primarily based in southern France – and Iowa’s MākuSafe.
Hapo showcased one of its spring-loaded exoskeletons that has been utilized in varied industries, from surgical facilities to agricultural work to warehouses.
MākuSafe offered its wearable monitoring know-how machine that gathers knowledge on a spread of potential office hazards, together with sound, warmth, mild, air high quality and a employee’s motions.
The problem was offered by the MSD Solutions Lab, an NSC program powered by Amazon.
