Abstract of the Offer
EsoTech Wearables Ltd, a UK-based start-up, develops lightweight soft exosuits for lower-limb assistance. Using pneumatic artificial muscles, the suits can assist or resist movement to stimulate key leg muscles through programmable force control. Tailorable like clothing, our suits support rehabilitation and athletic performance recovery and help mitigate the effects of low gravity in space. EsoTech seeks technical partnerships and pilot collaborations within the ESA ecosystem.
Description
EsoTech Wearables develops soft, lightweight robotic exosuits designed for use in both space exploration and terrestrial rehabilitation.
The wearable garment integrates advanced textiles with pneumatic artificial muscles to create a compliant device that can assist or resist key leg muscles during walking or targeted physical exercises.
The pneumatic actuators are electronically controlled to deliver programmable modulation of force and timing. This enables safe and repeatable stimulation of the lower-limb muscles while maintaining the comfort and adaptability of clothing.
In space, the exosuit serves as a countermeasure to the negative effects of low gravity on astronauts’ musculoskeletal systems. It can be employed throughout all mission phases:
- Pre-flight conditioning and training;
- Exercise augmentation during exposure to low-gravity environments;
- Assistance or resistance during extravehicular and planetary activities;
- Post-flight rehabilitation and recovery.
On Earth, applications focus on lower-limb rehabilitation and athletic performance recovery. Initial use cases include post-injury rehabilitation, support for return-to-play, and enhancement of exercise routines. Future developments aim to extend the system’s application to neurorehabilitation, post-stroke therapy, and motor relearning programmes.
Advantages and Innovations
Compared with existing exoskeletons, exosuits, and wearable robotics used in space and rehabilitation, EsoTech Wearables introduces several novel features:
Soft, compliant, and lightweight: Our first prototype, EsoMark 1, weighs only 1.4 kg. Its fabric-based structure embeds pneumatic artificial muscles along the main lower-limb muscle groups, providing comfort, compliance, and natural movement. Functioning as an extension of clothing rather than a rigid frame, it can be customised to each user’s needs. By comparison, rigid exoskeletons weigh 10–20+ kg (e.g., NASA X1, Lifeward’s ReWalk), limiting deployment in space missions and broader rehabilitation applications, including integration with extravehicular activity (EVA) suits.
Resistive and assistive: The pneumatic muscles are electronically controlled to modulate force and timing, enabling precise assistive and/or resistive activation. This dual functionality allows targeted muscle stimulation, which is essential for counteracting low-gravity effects in space and enhancing functional recovery in rehabilitation. To date, there is no documented application of soft, resistive exosuits in either the space or rehabilitation sectors.
Cost efficiency and accessibility: For the rehabilitation sector, the projected initial selling price is £6,000, with production unit costs below £2,500. Existing rigid or semi-rigid devices cost between £14,000 and over £100,000, restricting their use to niche applications such as spinal cord or acquired brain injury.
With this technology, EsoTech Wearables establishes a new class of wearable exosuits that combine comfort, adaptability, and affordability, enabling deployment in space and integration into mainstream rehabilitation programmes.