Father Builds Exoskeleton to Help Wheelchair-bound Son Walk

Kevin Piette, exoskeleton pilot, poses next to a robot exoskeleton created by French company Wandercraft to help wheelchair-bound patients learn or re-learn how to walk, during an interview with Reuters in Asnieres-sur-Seine, France, July 22, 2021. REUTERS/Sarah Meyssonnier
Kevin Piette, exoskeleton pilot, poses next to a robot exoskeleton created by French company Wandercraft to help wheelchair-bound patients learn or re-learn how to walk, during an interview with Reuters in Asnieres-sur-Seine, France, July 22, 2021. REUTERS/Sarah Meyssonnier
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Father Builds Exoskeleton to Help Wheelchair-bound Son Walk

Kevin Piette, exoskeleton pilot, poses next to a robot exoskeleton created by French company Wandercraft to help wheelchair-bound patients learn or re-learn how to walk, during an interview with Reuters in Asnieres-sur-Seine, France, July 22, 2021. REUTERS/Sarah Meyssonnier
Kevin Piette, exoskeleton pilot, poses next to a robot exoskeleton created by French company Wandercraft to help wheelchair-bound patients learn or re-learn how to walk, during an interview with Reuters in Asnieres-sur-Seine, France, July 22, 2021. REUTERS/Sarah Meyssonnier

"Robot, stand up" - Oscar Constanza, 16, gives the order and slowly but surely a large frame strapped to his body lifts him up and he starts walking.

Fastened to his shoulders, chest, waist, knees and feet, the exoskeleton allows Oscar - who has a genetic neurological condition that means his nerves do not send enough signals to his legs - to walk across the room and turn around.

"Before, I needed someone to help me walk ... this makes me feel independent," said Oscar, as his father Jean-Louis Constanza, one of the co-founders of the company that makes the exoskeleton, looks on.

"One day Oscar said to me: 'dad, you're a robotic engineer, why don't you make a robot that would allow us to walk?'" his father recalls, speaking at the company Wandercraft's headquarters in Paris.

"Ten years from now, there will be no, or far fewer, wheelchairs," he said.

Other companies across the world are also manufacturing exoskeletons, competing to make them as light and usable as possible. Some are focused on helping disabled people walk, others on a series of applications, including making standing less tiring for factory workers, reported Reuters.

Wandercraft's exoskeleton, an outer frame that supports but also simulates body movement, has been sold to dozens of hospitals in France, Luxembourg and the United States, for about 150,000 euros ($176,000) a piece, Constanza said.

It cannot yet be bought by private individuals for everyday use - that is the next stage the company is working on. A personal skeleton would need to be much lighter, Wandercraft engineers said.

Just outside Paris, 33-year-old Kevin Piette, who lost the ability to walk in a bike accident 10 years ago, tries one on, walking around his flat, remote controller in hand.

"In the end it's quite similar: instead of having the information going from the brain to the legs, it goes from the remote controller to the legs," he said, before making his dinner and walking with it from the kitchen to the living room.



Fans Bid Farewell to 4 Giant Pandas at Japan Zoo Before their Return to China

Giant panda Saihin, one among the four pandas on loan to Japan which will soon be heading back to China sits inside an enclosure at Adventure World in Shirahama, Wakayama Prefecture, Japan, Friday, June 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Ayaka McGill)
Giant panda Saihin, one among the four pandas on loan to Japan which will soon be heading back to China sits inside an enclosure at Adventure World in Shirahama, Wakayama Prefecture, Japan, Friday, June 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Ayaka McGill)
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Fans Bid Farewell to 4 Giant Pandas at Japan Zoo Before their Return to China

Giant panda Saihin, one among the four pandas on loan to Japan which will soon be heading back to China sits inside an enclosure at Adventure World in Shirahama, Wakayama Prefecture, Japan, Friday, June 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Ayaka McGill)
Giant panda Saihin, one among the four pandas on loan to Japan which will soon be heading back to China sits inside an enclosure at Adventure World in Shirahama, Wakayama Prefecture, Japan, Friday, June 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Ayaka McGill)

Thousands of fans bid a teary farewell Friday to a family of four giant pandas at a zoo in Japan’s coastal town of Shirahama as the animals made their last public appearance before their return to China.

Around 3,000 visitors flocked to the Adventure World theme park to get a last glimpse of the beloved animals. Many rushed straight to the panda exhibit zone, calling out the names of their favorites, The Associated Press reported.

Although the 24-year-old mother Rauhin and her three daughters — Yuihin, Saihin and Fuhin — were all born and raised at the park, they remain on loan from China and must now be returned.

Once they return to China, Xiao Xiao and Lei Lei at Tokyo’s Ueno Zoo will be the only pandas left in Japan.

More than 1,000 people, many wearing panda-themed attire, queued outside the entrance of the theme park hours before it opened while some camped outside the night before.

Some people wiped off tears while viewing throwback images of the pandas when they were cubs.

Yoshihiko Fukuzumi recalls the arrival of the first two pandas at the park 30 years ago and has watch their family grow. Since retiring three years ago, he and his wife have visited them nearly everyweek. “To us, they are like our grandchildren."

Giant pandas are native to southwestern China and serve as an unofficial national mascot. Beijing lends them to other countries as a sign of goodwill but maintains ownership over them and any cubs they produce.

Born in 2000, Rauhin had seven other cubs with Eimei, a male panda sent from China in 1994. Eimei returned home two years ago and has since died.

Despite strained political ties between Japan and China, giant pandas are hugely popular in Japan.

“We feel comforted just by looking at pandas,” said zoo director Koji Imazu.

Imazu said the departure of the four pandas marks the end of the zoo's 30-year joint project with China. He thanked Chinese specialists for sharing their expertise with the Japanese staff and said the zoo will be ready for a new arrival at any time.

“Of course we all miss them, but I hope you could send them off with a cheerful wave and wish them well in China,” Imazu said.

In Beijing, China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said giant pandas are “friendly ambassadors" conveying the goodwill of the Chinese people.

Guo said that China and Japan have collaborated on panda conservation and research since 2000, and that China is ready to further strengthen international cooperation, including with Japan.

Rauhin and her daughters will be flown to China on Saturday where they will join other pandas at a facility in Sichuan province near their original habitat. There, the three young ones will find partners.

“I still can't believe they're all leaving,” said Junko Ikeda, a Fuhin fan from neighboring Nara prefecture who spent Thursday night in her camper van for the send-off. "I hope she finds a partner, becomes a mother and lives a happy life.”