3rd Integration of the Exoskeleton in the Battlefield Workshop, Prague, Czech Republic

The  3rd Integration of the Exoskeleton in the Battlefield Workshop   was held in the PVA EXPO Prague, Czech Republic on 16-19 October 2018.

The workshop was conducted by the NATO EOD COE team with the support of the NCI Agency and the contribution of MILMED COE as well. The International Platform For Trends and Technologies in Defence and Security  Integration – Future Forces Forum was the perfect host for this workshop iteration.

Following the previous two workshops and in line with the overall objective of the project, this one gathered a group of specialists from different fields and areas of interest such as defense, industry, academia and research in order to reach consensus on the following objectives:

• review of Minimum Military Requirements, 
• update of IEB Project Roadmap 
• drafting the Concept of Operations (CONOPS)

During the Future Forces Forum’s DV Day, the report on the project, including the current achievements and future developments, was delivered by the project OPR, LTC Constantin Efrim (ROU Army) from NATO COE EOD, Slovakia.

The GARANT company through Mr. Mark O. Milewski presented SPS-15 Bomb Suit Latest improvements & innovations based on their IEB project approach. Mr. Alain  Bujold from the Canadian MAWASHI company introduced their latest findings on the Platform Exoskeleton Development for the Theather of Operations, Logistics, and EOD applications.

Mr. Yavor Gegov from Bulgarian PLICA Ltd. company explained their work on Utilization of user weight and carried cargo to power a low cost lower body exoskeleton device. 

It is as well important to mention the essential contribution of some other organizations, academia or commercial companies, i.e. Warsaw University of Technology, US Army Research Laboratory, MED-ENG and AxoSuits, which through their participation have made a considerable positive impact on the future development of the project as well. 

After three full days of intense brainstorming and hard work, the 3rd Integration of the Exoskeleton in the Battlefield Workshop has come to an end. The project is matured now, and we can foresee a clear future for the next scheduled events. The next workshop is to be organized in April 2019 in the Trenčín, Slovakia.