#3 - Augmenting the lives of paraplegics with exoskeletons - Tristan Vouga - TWIICE

Wearables bringing back the ability to walk for paraplegics: this is the world in which Tristan Vouga is evolving.

Passionate by the field of robotics and willing to have an impact on society, he turned his PhD thesis into the Swiss startup TWIICE.

The company is developing a modular exoskeleton, bringing back the ability for its users to stand, walk, climb stairs and even go on a ski tour!

Beyond the technological achievement and the numerous awards it has won in international contests, their platform has the potential to transform the lives of many paraplegics as well as amputees.

We talked with Tristan about his transition from PhD student to entrepreneur, about their exoskeleton capabilities, the feelings of “ownership, embodiement and agency” that are key to a seamless human-machine interaction, and about how innovation can be derived from science-fiction!

Timeline:

00:00:00 - Tristan’s introduction and background in wearable robotics

00:03:22 - Moving to the US to explore brain-controlled exoskeletons

00:08:10 - Description of the exoskeleton TWIICE, how it operates and supports paraplegics

00:10:52 - The importance of embodiment, ownership and agency in human-machine interactions

00:12:42 - Leveraging brain signals to control wearable exoskeletons

00:14:03 - Generating haptic feedback to enhance the feelings of ownership, embodiment and agency

00:15:57 - Developing an exoskeleton for ski touring

00:18:38 - Exploring new use cases for amputees

00:21:01 - Innovative commercial models to distribute the cost of ownership among patients

00:22:59 - A clinical trial to demonstrate the efficacy and safety of TWIICE in a community setting

00:24:29 - Seamless human-machine interaction as a key differentiator

00:26:16 - Moving towards an exoskeleton not requiring crutches

00:30:20 - The Cybathlon and competing against other exoskeletons

00:35:02 - Dealing with the frustration of access hurdles for patients

00:36:11 - Coping with the demand from patients while driving R&D efforts

00:38:17 - Transitioning from PhD student to entrepreneur

00:40:18 - Drawing inspiration from science-fiction

What we also talked about with Tristan:

EPFL

ETHZ

Duke University

ReHassist

The Nicolelis Lab

Neuralink

The triad: embodiment-ownership-agency

Boston Dynamics

The Cybathlon

The Global Innovation Challenge

Blade Runner

Testmate Health

We cited with Tristan some of the past episodes from the podcast:

#1 - Measuring your arterial age to prevent heart diseases - Ted Baldwin - Imageens

If you want to know more about Twiice, we invite you to consult their website: https://twiice.ch/

You can contact Tristan through LinkedIn or by email: tristan.vouga@twiice.ch

If you want to give me feedback on the episode, ask questions or suggest potential guests, feel free to do so through LinkedIn or by email: m.chaffard05@gmail.com