The Ascend: A Wearable Robot for Knee Pain Relief

If you're one of the millions of people who suffer from knee pain, you'll know it can be debilitating. This is where the Ascend comes in – a wearable robot that can help relieve your pain and maybe even help you avoid surgery.

Exoskeletons are literally stepping out of superhero movies into the real world. Remember Bruce Wayne's knee brace in The Dark Knight Rises? Well, the Ascend won't help you kick through walls, but this smart orthosis can help people with osteoarthritis and knee injuries regain mobility and relieve pain.

Tim Swift, CEO of Rome Robotics, is here to show us how it works. When a customer comes in and decides to get Ascend, they'll be custom fabricated for them. This is really the core of what Ascend is all about – an actuation unit that uses air and woven fabrics, which has shown about 46% reduction in perceived pain for customers.

Now, let's try it on. I'll be wearing a demo unit that's fit to me, but the actual Ascend is made to each wearer's specific limb measurements and weighs about two and a half pounds. So, I'm ready to introduce the SmartPak to you. It's worn just like a normal backpack, with a waist strap if you'd like to attach it around your waist for extra security.

There's also a connector that connects the power source in the SmartPak to the actual device – a magnetized connector that's very easy to insert and undo. This remote lets the wearer control the level of support and activity mode, such as walking or sitting. You'll get up to two hours of runtime from the SmartPak depending on what you're doing.

Let's put it to the test. Did you get that all right? Lincoln Park steps here we go! Oh, it's kicked in! Oh, okay; I could feel it giving me some support on this leg right underneath here behind my thigh and it feels like someone is just gently lifting up. It does feel like it's taking the pressure out of my quadricep and out of my knee as well.

All right, let's try something more challenging – sitting. So, we'll go ahead and take this and um place it into the mode for sitting, and now I'm going to go ahead and hold this because what I'm going to do is I'm actually going to shut it off on you while you're going down so you can feel it. You like to play pranks? Oh, this is exactly what we're thinking!

Okay, let's see – so we're gonna go down; you're gonna sit and relax into it. Yeah, this is a very relaxing position right here! And then when we kill it, see at this point you fall into it. Yeah, like that – it was holding me right there, and then it went off and I was like "Oh yeah!" You probably wonder where you can get your hands on an Ascend if you do have knee pain and how much it costs.

Well, if you're in the San Francisco Bay area, you can contact Rome Robotics and they'll do a fitting. And if you're outside of the bay area, then just get in touch because they will be rolling out far and wide very soon! It might actually be eligible under your insurance plan or under Medicare – but the full retail price is $7,000.

Thanks so much for watching – I hope you enjoyed the episode as always. Let us know your comments down below, hit like, and subscribe to stay tuned to more fun stuff on CNET like walking robots exoskeletons and wearable robotics!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enif you're one of the millions of people who suffer from knee pain you'll know it can be debilitating this is the ascend from rome robotics and it's a wearable robot that can help relieve your pain and maybe help you avoid surgery exoskeletons are literally stepping out of superhero movies into the real world remember bruce wayne's knee brace in the dark knight rises well the ascend won't help you kick through walls but this smart orthosis can help people with osteoarthritis and knee injuries regain mobility and relieve pain this is tim swift ceo of rome robotics who's going to show us how it works when a customer comes in and decides to uh get ascend in consultation with their doctor then they'll be custom fabricated for them this is really kind of the core of of what ascend is is uh this actuation unit um there's a novel actuator that lives inside here that uses air and woven fabrics they're showing about 46 reduction in perceived pain for these customers uh and about two-thirds of them are seeing a functional improvement as a result now it's time to try it on i'll be wearing a demo unit that's fit to me but the actual ascend is made to each wearer's specific limb measurements and weighs about two and a half pounds so now we're ready to introduce the smartpak to you so i'm gonna go ahead and help you put it on here it's worn just like a normal backpack there is a waist strap if you'd like to attach that around your waist for a little extra security and then there's the connector this is what connects the power source in the smartpak to the actual device it is a magnetized connector so it's very easy to insert to undo it it's just to press and pull this remote lets the wearer control the level of support and activity mode like walking or sitting you'll get up to two hours of runtime from the smartpak depending on what you're doing so let's put it to the test did you get that all right lincoln park steps here we go okay oh it's kicked in oh okay i could i can feel it giving me some support on this leg right underneath here behind my thigh and it feels it does feel like someone's just like gently lifting up so uh i do feel like it's taking the pressure out of my quadricep and out of my knee as well all right i'm gonna walk back go for it see what this feels like oh it's like literally giving me a boost i can feel it assisting me well that was easy now let's try something more challenging sitting so we'll go ahead and take this and um place it into into the mode for sitting and now i'm going to go ahead and turn it on okay um i'll go ahead and hold this because what i'm going to do is i'm actually going to shut it off on you uh as you are going down so you can so you can feel it so you you like to play pranks oh this is exactly what we're thinking okay all right that sounds good all right let's see so we're gonna go down so you're gonna go down just sit and relax into it yeah this is a very relaxing position right here and then and then when we kill it see at this point you fall into it yeah like it so it was holding me right here and then it went off and i was like oh yeah no more support okay well so then at this point not that comfortable for an extended period of time it doesn't look very good either so oh and it's back on again oh nice so then when the torque comes back in it has definitely got enough torque to kind of move you around so it actually could give me a boost out of that squat position because i did it yeah but there it's a little noisy tell me about the actual finished version or the version that customers will get yeah so this is a this is kind of a first production prototypes and device like this is going to run kind of like a fairly loud dishwasher is what you're hearing uh the end unit they're going to run what sounds more like a fridge uh so 55 decibels is kind of the normal operating levels so i can't really be sneaky with this on like people are gonna definitely hear me coming not in its current configuration yes for most of our customers they're looking for support on activity living so we're targeting things like in and out of chairs up and down steps level ground walking well lucky for you mitch who has experienced knee pain who is filming at the moment he is going to put on the ascent because it's all well and good that i tell you about this as someone who doesn't experience knee pain but someone with knee pain is actually going to give you the low down so mitch you're on the spot i'm going to put it on you right now let's go he's ready so mitch how does this actually feel to you now uh it feels really good i can feel the assist definitely uh when i didn't have it on uh there was pain in my knee and now i don't feel it and in fact it feels like somebody is pushing or assisting my knee interesting tell me a little bit about why you would potentially want to use something like this yeah so i tore my acl many years ago i had it fixed but like all things the repairs started to deteriorate in my knee and so now my knee is a little loose so i can walk fine and it's just a matter of time when going upstairs or doing something getting out of car whatever and it starts to swell up and it starts to hurt when we walked up with it i didn't feel that pain anymore i didn't feel any discomfort so you're probably wondering where you can get your hands on an ascend if you do have knee pain and how much it costs well if you're in the san francisco bay area you can contact rome robotics and they'll do a fitting and you can do a trial run if you're outside of the bay area then do get in touch because they will be rolling out far and wide very soon and it might actually be eligible under your insurance plan or under medicare but the full retail price is seven thousand dollars thanks so much for watching i hope you enjoyed the episode as always let us know your comments down below hit like and subscribe to stay tuned to more fun stuff on cnet like walking robots exoskeletons and wearable robotics alright i'm just going to test this out now and do some more squats or walk down the steps first i know it's just that's funny i wasn't expecting it to make\n"