Encouraged by the results they’ve seen so far, the Brooks staff plans to help Cyberdyne bring HAL to five more hospitals in the United States this year. Brooks is currently finalizing contracts to host and train visiting staff from those hospitals at their Jacksonville facility. Amy Morace, an exercise physiologist and business development specialist for Brooks, declined to share the names of its potential partners, but did say that one of the five new locations will be another Brooks facility in Daytona Beach, Florida.

For Bal’s recent session in Jacksonville, he wore a harness that kept him balanced over one of two treadmill tracks specially installed for use with HAL. As he thought about taking a step, his brain sent the necessary instructions to his leg muscles. But because of his injured spine, few signals made it through, and those that did were too weak to make his legs to move, or to move with the swiftness and force of a normal step.

That’s where HAL comes in. Nine electrodes stuck to each of Bal’s legs detected these faint signals and relayed them to the exoskeleton fitted to Bal’s legs. The exoskeleton’s control system read these signals to decipher Bal’s intent. Then, the exoskeleton assisted Bal in carrying out the movement he wished to make.

According to Cyberdyne, this process provides positive feedback to a patient’s brain that the intended motion was completed, which strengthens the signal pathway between their brain and muscles, and ultimately helps them learn to carry out the movement on their own, independent of HAL.

Other exoskeletons, such as ReWalk and the EksoGT, are programmed to take steps of a predefined length whenever a wearer shifts their weight, but don’t generally improve a patient’s ability to walk on their own—patients must continue to wear the exoskeleton in order to get around.

And it isn’t easy to learn to operate them smoothly. “My experience is that it’s like you’re fighting against the robot,” says Javier Morales, a student at the University of Miami who is now taking a break from his studies to work with HAL at Brooks Rehab. 

Traditional exoskeletons must also be recharged frequently, and can’t be worn out in the rain. They’re also expensive, costing between US $65,000 to $100,000, and are seldom covered by insurance.

Unlike those technologies, HAL did not complete any movements for Bal. Instead, once Bal had initiated a movement with his brain, HAL simply helped his muscles carry it out properly. “The difference is, we’re not just putting people through the motions, we’re strengthening a neurological command,” says Morace.

During a session with HAL, patients can monitor their progress on a screen in front of them that displays color-coded charts depicting the strength of signals detected in each of their leg muscles. Watching the charts helps patients gauge which muscles are involved in a movement, and how their ability to generate those signals is improving over time.   

To Bob McIver, a physical therapist and director of technology for Brooks’ Cybernic Treatment Center, that biodfeedback system sets Cyberdyne’s technology apart. “This really gave us insight into what message [the patient is] sending,” he says. “It really produces a lot quicker changes.” In future version of the system, McIver would like Cyberdyne to do even more with this information—perhaps summarizing in a simple-to-understand “walking score” for patients, for example, or producing detailed reports for clinicians.

So far, the Brooks staff has screened more than 200 patients interested in working with HAL, and accepted 18 into its treatment program. Most of these patients have spinal cord injuries, though a few are being treated off-label for other neurological conditions such as Guillain-Barre Syndrome. A typical program consists of 60 90-minute sessions, conducted five days a week for 12 weeks, though some patients complete their treatment in fewer sessions.

It’s a grueling treatment regimen, often leaving patients feeling exhausted and sore. And the standard 60-session program costs US $24,000 and is not covered by insurance—Bal asked his mother for part of his inheritance in order to pay for it.

Morace says so far, seven patients have completed a full treatment program with HAL at the Jacksonville clinic. Aside from helping them walk on their own again or with a walker, all seven have also reported at least two other benefits, which may include greater endurance, better posture, more control of bladder and bowel functions, and improvements to their respiratory system and/or cardiovascular health (such as lower blood pressure).

Brooks is currently leading a three-year research effort with 24 participants to quantify these results, and plans to expand its Jacksonville facility in 2019 to have as many as 12 tracks for HAL wearers to walk on.

When he started his treatment program, 31-year-old Morales could only take six or seven awkward steps at a time even while wearing HAL. He suffered a devastating spinal cord injury 12 years ago in Spain when his friend lost control of the car he was riding in. After three weeks with HAL, he could walk for several minutes at a time while wearing the exoskeleton. 

“I’m super happy because I’ve been fighting for so many years to produce these kinds of signals,” he says. “Today was good.”

For more about HAL, visit its page on our new Robots site at https://robots.ieee.org/robots/hal