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.
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