RoboticsSpine

Rewalk Robotics starts to take its first steps

By Tanya Powley

Former army guardsman James Johnson wants to walk into his favourite restaurant and stand at a bar with friends.

But the 31-year-old, who has no feeling from the chest down, has been using a wheelchair since his first tour of duty in Afghanistan in 2012.

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His ambition to walk again, however, will soon become a reality as Mr Johnson becomes the first British soldier to own a pair of bionic legs by Israeli-based company Rewalk Robotics.

“It’s amazing to have this opportunity,” Mr Johnson says. “I’m very much a fan of the little things this is going to give me, like standing at the bar with your mates or just going for a walk.”

Rewalk is one of a handful of technology companies that make high-tech wearable robotic exoskeletons for wheelchair users, a fledgling market that is slowly beginning to take off. Last year, tetraplegic Irving Caplan, who was paralysed after a cycling accident 18 years ago, made headlines after he crossed a dance floor wearing a pair of Rex Bionic legs to deliver a speech at his daughter’s wedding in St Albans, Hertfordshire.

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