{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,8]],"date-time":"2025-09-08T05:34:13Z","timestamp":1757309653604,"version":"3.41.2"},"reference-count":0,"publisher":"Emerald","issue":"6","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,8,26]],"date-time":"2021-08-26T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1629936000000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/www.emerald.com\/insight\/site-policies"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["IR"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2021,11,16]]},"abstract":"\nPurpose<\/jats:title>\nThe following paper is a \u201cQ&A interview\u201d conducted by Joanne Pransky of Industrial Robot Journal<\/jats:italic> as a method to impart the combined technological, business and personal experience of a prominent, robotic industry PhD-turned innovator and entrepreneur regarding his pioneering efforts. The paper aims to discuss these issues.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n\nDesign\/methodology\/approach<\/jats:title>\nThe interviewee is Dr Homayoon Kazerooni, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of California (UC) Berkeley, pioneer and leading entrepreneur of robotic exoskeletons. He is a foremost expert in robotics, control sciences, exoskeletons, bioengineering and mechatronics design. Kazerooni shares in this interview details on his second start-up, US Bionics DBA suitX.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n\nFindings<\/jats:title>\nKazerooni received his MS and PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He has been a Professor at UC Berkeley for over 30 years. He also serves as the Director of the Berkeley Robotics and Human Engineering Laboratory \u201cKAZ LAB.\u201d The lab\u2019s early research focused on enhancing human upper extremity strength, and Kazerooni led his team to successfully develop a new class of intelligent assist devices that are currently marketed worldwide and used by manual laborers in distribution centers and factories worldwide. Dr Kazerooni\u2019s later work focused on the control of human\u2013machine systems specific to human lower extremities. After developing BLEEX, ExoHiker and ExoClimber \u2013 three load-carrying exoskeletons \u2013 his team at Berkeley created Human Universal Load Carrier. It was the first energetically autonomous, orthotic, lower extremity exoskeleton that allowed its user to carry 100-pound weights in various terrains for an extended period, without becoming physically overwhelmed. The technology was initially licensed to Ekso Bionics and then Lockheed Martin. Kazerooni and his team also developed lower-extremity technology to aid persons who have experienced a stroke, spinal cord injuries or have health conditions that obligate them to use a wheelchair.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n\nOriginality\/value<\/jats:title>\nIn 2005, Kazerooni founded Ekso Bionics, the very first exoskeleton company in America, which went on to become a publicly owned company in 2014. Ekso, currently marketed by Ekso Bionics, was designed jointly between Ekso Bionics and Berkeley for paraplegics and those with mobility disorders to stand and walk with little physical exertion. In 2011, Austin Whitney, a Berkeley student suffering from lower limb paralysis, walked for commencement in one of Kazerooni\u2019s exoskeletons, \u201cThe Austin Exoskeleton Project,\u201d named in honor of Whitney. Kazerooni went on in 2011, to found US Bionics, DBA suitX, a venture capital, industry and government-funded robotics exoskeleton company. suitX\u2019s core technology is focused on the design and manufacturing of affordable industrial and medical exoskeletons to improve the lives of workers and people with gait impairment. suitX has received investment from Wistron (Taiwan), been awarded several US government awards and won two Saint-Gobain NOVA Innovation Awards. suitX has also won the US$1m top prize in the \u201cUAE AI and Robotics for Good\u201d Competition. Its novel health-care exoskeleton Phoenix has recently received FDA approval. Kazerooni has won numerous awards including Discover<\/jats:italic> magazine\u2019s Technological Innovation Award, the McKnight-Land Grant Professorship and has been a recipient of the outstanding ASME Investigator Award. His research was recognized as the most innovative technology of the year in New York Times Magazine<\/jats:italic>. He has served in a variety of leadership roles in the mechanical engineering community and served as editor of two journals: ASME Journal of Dynamics Systems and Control<\/jats:italic> and IEEE Transaction on Mechatronics<\/jats:italic>. Kazerooni has published more than 200 articles to date, delivered over 130 plenary lectures internationally and is the inventors of over 100 patents.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1108\/ir-06-2021-0112","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,8,24]],"date-time":"2021-08-24T15:17:08Z","timestamp":1629818228000},"page":"765-769","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["Dr Homayoon Kazerooni: Professor at UC-Berkeley, pioneer of exoskeletons, founder and CEO of U.S. Bionics (DBA suitX), founder Ekso Bionics"],"prefix":"10.1108","volume":"48","author":[{"given":"Joanne","family":"Pransky","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"140","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,8,26]]},"container-title":["Industrial Robot: the international journal of robotics research and application"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.emerald.com\/insight\/content\/doi\/10.1108\/IR-06-2021-0112\/full\/xml","content-type":"application\/xml","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/www.emerald.com\/insight\/content\/doi\/10.1108\/IR-06-2021-0112\/full\/html","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,7,24]],"date-time":"2025-07-24T21:39:21Z","timestamp":1753393161000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"http:\/\/www.emerald.com\/ir\/article\/48\/6\/765-769\/187397"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2021,8,26]]},"references-count":0,"journal-issue":{"issue":"6","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,8,26]]},"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2021,11,16]]}},"alternative-id":["10.1108\/IR-06-2021-0112"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1108\/ir-06-2021-0112","relation":{},"ISSN":["0143-991X","0143-991X"],"issn-type":[{"type":"print","value":"0143-991X"},{"type":"print","value":"0143-991X"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2021,8,26]]}}}