Momentum - The Magazine for Virginia Tech Mechanical Engineering Vol. 2 No. 2 Summer 2017 | Page 22

developed.” come out stronger,” Sirico said. Lowe’s Innovation Labs launched the exosuit project as a way to make working in stores easier and more efficient, thereby improving employee well-being and customer service. Following the initial pilot program, Lowe’s will survey the impact of the program and look for opportunities to scale up. Meanwhile, in As- beck’s lab, the team will continue developing the technology and eventually will look for addition- al applications. For Lowe’s Christiansburg store manager Joe Sirico, employee safety during those everyday tasks is a top priority, making the debut of the exosuits in his store a welcome opportunity. “This is a way to help keep our associates from being as worn out,” Sirico said. Sirico, who recently moved to the New River Valley from the Washington, D.C., area, said he was looking forward to a partnership with Virginia Tech. “This project really pairs a company like ours that has been doing business and has been a part of this community for many, many years with an institution like Tech, and takes those two worlds and smashes them together, and we both MOMENTUM SUMMER'17 “My objective for day one is to make it work for Lowe’s,” Asbeck said. “Beyond that, my primary concern is always getting research into the real world and being as useful to society as possible.” Asbeck was recently awarded the Interdisci- plinary Rehabilitation Engineering Career Devel- opment Program’s Movement and Rehabilitation Sciences training grant, a $135,000 award that will fund Asbeck’s further study in exoskeleton use, particularly for rehabilitation. Previously, Asbeck was funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to develop a soft exosuit for soldiers that assists human motion. PAGE 22