Esko Bionics to Continue Warrior Web Project

Esko’s GT robotic exoskeleton for medical rehabilitation. Photo courtesy Esko Bionics.

by Scott Kesselman



Richmond, California, robotic exoskeleton company, Esko Bionics Holdings Inc., announced today it was selected by Google’s Boston Dynamics to continue developing for DARPA’s Warrior Web Task A project.  



Esko Bionics received a subcontract from Google that will allow Esko to retain intellectual property rights. The agreement extends collaboration from a 2013 contract and brings the total funding for Esko in the past year to $4.5 million.



The Warrior Web project seeks to create a lightweight under-suit to prevent or reduce musculoskeletal injuries from taking physical activity. The suit is designed to be transparent to the user, like a wetsuit, and pursue five key technologies: core injury mitigation, analytical representations, regenerative actuation, adaptive sensing and control, and suit human-to-wearer interface, according to the DARPA project page.



Last week, six soldiers tested the project by marching through 84 miles of obstacles with the suits with no incidences of failure. 



“It is rewarding to see how our unique technology can be adapted to fit seamlessly within a broader matrix of complex technologies and to maximize performance under demanding circumstances, similar to what a ground soldier might face,” says Nathan Harding, cofounder and CEO of Esko.



The technology will advance the capability of Esko’s product offerings in medical, industrial, consumer and military markets.