Benoît Sagot Duvauroux, head of the Gobio exoskeleton business for the Europe Technology Group and exoskeleton expert, tells us about the different characteristics of exoskeletons available on the market.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psetVKoQLaA
Can you introduce yourself?
My name is Benoît Sagot-Duvauroux. I am the Responsible for the Gobio Activity, which is the exoskeleton activity within the Europe Technologies Group. I started this activity by creating the company Gobio in 2014, oriented towards exoskeletons, at a time when few things existed in the industrial environment.
I have spent my entire career in innovation, robotics, artificial intelligence and machine vision.
Can you explain to us the particularities of the Japet.W exoskeleton compared to exoskeletons available on the market?
Having an exoskeleton that is also well oriented on low back pain really places it at the top of active exoskeletons that can be marketed. It has a very clear and very significant effect on the operators on which it is installed. As soon as we put it on operators who suffer from back pain, and essentially lumbar pain, immediately, the answer we get is “Wow, I don't have any pain anymore!”.
With the scientific studies that are being done on the product and all the work to explain the device, it really makes it an exoskeleton which, for us, is Quite Unique in Its Kind In the range of exoskeletons that we have.
What do you think of the support that Japet offers?
On the one hand, for us it is important, it is a French brand. We therefore have an ease of communication and approach to the client. At Japet, during the commercial phase, we always find it very easy to have someone who believes us.
The second aspect concerns the initial phase of training that we were able to get from Japet on the product training of the personnel who work with me. With Japet, there are services that we do not have with all the products and with all the exoskeleton manufacturers we work with. It is a slightly more technical product than a passive exoskeleton, but at Japet, in case of small problems, there is a very good reactivity, with a system that is well established now, with forwarding, temporary replacement devices, etc.
What does the active aspect of the exoskeleton bring for you?
There is a very important challenge in being able to have the passive exoskeleton on the one hand and active exoskeleton on the other.
What I see among customers is that there are two main categories.
On the one hand, people who need to relieve slightly complex postures and work situations, and on the other hand, people who really need reinforcements. The ergo skeleton, or passive exoskeleton, is rather linked to a decrease in the difficulty of a posture. Active exoskeletons, on the other hand, will be there to provide energy, not to provide strength, but Provide energy to relieve operators' difficulties in a different way. And that's what the motors and the mechatronics part of the Japet.W. He will be able to provide energy and regulate this energy.
The problem with passive exoskeletons is that it is all or nothing, either the exoskeleton is active or it is not. The Japet.W Exoskeleton is active all the time, it brings this power to be able to come Relieve intervertebral pressure, and it is a major issue.
The Japet.W exoskeleton is a medical device, what does it bring?
If there is one aspect that is very nuanced in marketing, it is the fact that it is a medical device. On the one hand, it provides security, It makes it possible to reassure the customer about the reliability of the product, to have a dialogue with the medical staff of companies or people who will eventually help finance, such as AGEFIP for example.
On the other hand, it brings constraints to the product. There may be difficulties in making changes because this means going through medical qualifications and certifications. So this is both reassuring and it shows that scientific and medical studies have been done on the product, but it can also be a bit restrictive for the speed and agility in the evolution of the product due to this necessary rigor and the strict regulations that surround medical devices in this class.
What do you think of the price positioning of Japet.W?
Regarding the price of an exoskeleton, we obviously understand that an active exoskeleton with four motorized jacks, intelligence and a lot of technical research, we are not in the same price range as for a neck support, which is a small plastic part for example. In our range, we range from exoskeletons of the order of €200 to exoskeletons of the order of €7000 such as the Japet.W.
So we stay in a Fairly Consistent Price Margin Between Very Simple Devices and the Most Sophisticated Devices That We Distribute. However, it remains a cost, either, for the craftsman or the person who works alone and for whom €6,000 is already a significant cost, but also for a larger company, because if the exoskeleton is effective for a type of workstation and there are 50 people to equip, it can quickly start to constitute significant budgets.
So exoskeletons in these price concepts require us, the distributors, to take a more active and more pronounced approach to explaining Gains that the company will make, on reducing the costs of musculoskeletal disorders, Knowing that obviously Back Problems are one of the most important cases of work stoppages and long work stoppages Which may require operations that make the employee unavailable for a long time, or even no longer available at all for this workstation.
How is the exoskeleton perceived by users?
In the marketing process that we propose, we integrate four phases: a phase of understanding the work situation, a phase of selecting the solution that can be put in place, a phase of short-term evaluation of the exoskeleton and a phase of ownership. The perception by the operators of the exoskeleton must be based on these four phases and on what they tell us about their workstations.
Then, we have an approach to how he feels, and that's very often The “wow” effect That we often talk about with the Japet exoskeleton, that is to say the moment when the operator puts it on, he explains to us that he Feel a sense of relief right away. It is the active aspect of the exoskeleton that allows this. They immediately feel the stretch in the spine and they feel lighter.
The appreciation of the device is more variable among operators during the first days and weeks when they start to get used to using it, when they are able to put it on better themselves and to make it their own.
This ownership and adaptation of the operator to the exoskeleton is the main challenge of the first days and weeks, during which we must regularly make a short phone call to make sure that everything is fine and eventually come back to the customer to answer his questions. But as a rule, it goes well.
A Quick Note at the End?
With Japet, we have known each other for several years, and what is fundamental for us is to succeed in having a professional relationship of trust and friendship. With Japet, it has been going very well since the beginning, we completely find these three components. From the start, It's a win win Because we are provided with products that suit us and I think that the level of sales we can do is also suitable for Japet.
