Thibault of Lyon...

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Last April, we saw a robot (Colossus) extinguish the interior fire in the Notre Dame Cathedral, now a French paraplegic known only as "Thibault of Lyon" has become the first human to use a mind-controlled exoskeleton to walk. (https://www.theguardian.com/…/paralysed-man-walks-using-min…)

Thibault trained for months, harnessing his brain signals to control a computer-simulated avatar to perform basic movements before using the robotic device to walk.

Researchers described the trial results as a breakthrough, despite the fact that the doctors who conducted the trial acknowledge the device is still years away from being publicly available. Still, it does seem to have the potential to offer dramatic improvements to a patients’ quality of life and autonomy.

Four years ago, Thibault of Lyon's life was permanently changed when he fell 40ft from a balcony, severing his spinal cord and leaving him paralysed from the shoulders down.

“When you are in my position, when you can’t do anything with your body … I wanted to do something with my brain,” Thibault said.

He trained using a video game avatar system to acquire the skills needed to operate the exoskeleton and had to relearn natural movements from scratch. “I can’t go home tomorrow in my exoskeleton but I’ve got to a point where I can walk. I walk when I want and I stop when I want,” Thibault said.

Currently, cervical spinal cord injuries leave about 20% of patients paralyzed in all four limbs and is the most severe injury of its kind.

Alim Louis Benabid, professor emeritus at Grenoble and lead author of the study published in the Lancet Neurology journal, noted that, “The brain is still capable of generating commands that would normally move the arms and legs, there’s just nothing to carry them out.”

Like all technology robotics offers both promise and peril as the emergence of AI and robotics will transform both the job market and our world.
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