Capabilities
Where are exoskeletons actually used?
In two worlds that barely overlap: logistics warehouses and rehabilitation clinics. The record splits cleanly by what each machine is for. Back-support exosuits are recorded in European logistics warehouses and factories, at Dachser, La Poste and an Ingolstadt car plant. Powered lower-limb exoskeletons are recorded in hospitals and rehabilitation clinics in the United States, Germany, France, Canada, Japan, Malaysia and Ukraine. The honest caveat sits alongside: most of the registry's exoskeleton models carry no recorded deployment at all, and a large share of the deployments that exist are sourced only to the maker's own website.
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In two settings that have almost nothing to do with each other.
Industrial and logistics. Back-support exosuits are recorded in European warehouses and plants: German Bionic's Cray X at Dachser in Magdeburg and at La Poste sites in Duisburg, Malsch and Leupoldsgrun, its Apogee exosuit in Augsburg, and Noonee's Chairless Chair at Ingolstadt. These are lifting and standing aids for people already doing the job, not machines replacing them.
Medical and rehabilitation. Powered lower-limb exoskeletons are recorded in clinical settings: Ekso Bionics' EksoNR and Indego in the United States and Germany, Lifeward's ReWalk in the United States, Wandercraft's self-balancing Atalante X in Paris, B-TEMIA's Keeogo in Montreal, Ottobock's Phoenix in Duderstadt, Hocoma's Lokomat, and Cyberdyne's bioelectrically-controlled HAL in Japan, Malaysia and Ukraine.
Now the part a vendor round-up leaves out. Most of the exoskeleton models on the registry have no reviewed deployment at all: they are recorded machines with no recorded use. Of the deployments that do exist, a large share rest entirely on the manufacturer's own website, and more than half carry no start date on the record. All three of those numbers are on this page, because a page about where a technology is used is only as good as its willingness to say where the evidence runs out.
One thing this page does not tell you: whether exoskeletons work. The registry holds deployments, not clinical outcomes or productivity results. A deployment is evidence that a machine is in use somewhere. It is not evidence that it helped.
What the record holds
Counted from the registry rather than asserted. The first number is the one a vendor round-up never shows.
- Models with recorded use
- 13 of 28
- Places
- 18
- Maker's word alone
- 9 of 22
22 reviewed deployment records across 13 machines and 10 makers, at 18 distinct places. 15 of the 28 reviewed exoskeleton models carry no deployment record at all. Of the records that exist, 9 rest entirely on the maker’s own domain and 12 carry no start date, so they show as not yet on record rather than being given an invented one. Only 10 are dated.
Three different claims, kept apart
Each column is attributed to what it actually describes. The third is the claim DEPLOY refuses to make.
Named machines at named sites
Every row is a reviewed deployment at a specific place: a logistics warehouse, a car plant, a hospital, a rehabilitation clinic. Each carries the registry's own status and its own sources, read live at page load.
Whether any of it worked
The registry holds deployments, not clinical outcomes, injury rates or productivity results. A deployment is evidence that a machine is in use at a named place and nothing further. Several of these devices carry regulatory clearances, which are their own kind of evidence, but a clearance is not an efficacy finding either.
That the rest are independently sourced
An entry is flagged when every source behind it sits on the maker's own domain, tested against both the company name and the model name. The remainder are described only as not the maker's own domain: a press-release wire or an investor-relations site is neither the manufacturer nor a disinterested party.
Where they are recorded in use
Most deployed first. Each machine is described in its own model record’s words, which is what makes the split between industrial back-support exosuits and clinical lower-limb exoskeletons visible without DEPLOY imposing a taxonomy on it.
- German Bionic Cray X: Stuttgart, Germany, Magdeburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, Malsch, Baden-Württemberg, Germany and 2 more
Powered (motor-driven), AI-controlled back-support exosuit for industrial lifting; 5th generation adds active walking assistance. Maker on the record: German Bionic. 5 deployment records back this entry. 1 of its records carry no start date on the registry.
In use on the recordAug 11, 2022 (as reported) Powered (motor-driven) exoskeleton whose distinguishing feature is bioelectric-signal control: skin-surface sensors detect the faint nerve/muscle signals of intended movement and drive the actuators in sync. Maker on the record: Cyberdyne. 4 deployment records back this entry. 1 of its records carry no start date on the registry.
Powered lower-limb personal exoskeleton; latest ReWalk generation, FDA cleared March 2025. Maker on the record: Lifeward. 2 deployment records back this entry. 1 of its records carry no start date on the registry. Every source behind this entry is on the maker's own domain.
Recorded machines with no recorded use
15 of the 28 reviewed exoskeleton models on the registry carry no deployment record. That is an absence in DEPLOY’s record, not a finding that these machines have never been used: it means no reviewed deployment has been recorded for them yet. Naming them is more useful than leaving them out.
| Machine | Maker |
|---|---|
| ARKE | Bionik Laboratories |
| ATOUN MODEL Y | ATOUN |
| Fourier ExoMotus M4 | Fourier Intelligence |
| Guardian XO | Sarcos Robotics |
| HANK | GOGOA Mobility Robots |
| Honda Walking Assist Device | Honda |
| Indego | Parker Hannifin Indego |
| Laevo | Laevo |
| Lockheed Martin ONYX | Lockheed Martin |
| MAX Industrial Exoskeleton | SuitX (US Bionics) |
| Muscle Suit Every | Innophys |
| Myomo MyoPro | Myomo |
| Rex Bionics REX | Rex Bionics |
| Roam Robotics Ascend | Roam Robotics |
| Verve Motion SafeLift | Verve Motion |
How we know this
Every machine on this page is a deployment record on the DEPLOY registry, read live at page load, with its own place, its own dated start where the record holds one, and its own sources. Each machine is described in its own model record's words rather than characterised here. Here are the sources behind them.
Sourcing is tested against each maker's company name and its model name, so an entry resting entirely on the manufacturer's own domain is visible as one. The models with no reviewed deployment are named on the page rather than omitted: absence from the record means DEPLOY holds no deployment for that machine, which is not a finding that it has never been used.
Common questions
Are exoskeletons used in factories and warehouses?
Are exoskeletons used in hospitals?
Do exoskeletons actually work?
How many exoskeletons are actually deployed?
Is this just marketing from the exoskeleton makers?
Which countries use exoskeletons?
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