Ekso

After a successful trial in two US plants, Ford is now offering a wearable upper-body exoskeleton to employees in 15 of its plants all across the globe. The EksoVest is designed to support workers' arms while they perform repetitive overhead tasks.

Some jobs on Ford's automotive assembly lines require workers to be constantly reaching overhead, and a whole day of doing so can really take a toll on the body. That's why the motor company has recently partnered with Ekso Bionics to trial an upper-body exoskeleton known as the EksoVest.

Practical exoskeletons have moved closer to common usage with the news that Honda has begun leasing 100 of its Walking Assist Devices to hospitals in Japan so that it can monitor and validate their usefulness of the device in the real world.