NSC crowns winner of Safety Innovation Challenge

Orlando, FL — HeroWear and its exoskeleton suit were voted the winner of the National Safety Council’s third annual Safety Innovation Challenge.

Aimed at bringing together business leaders and safety innovators to achieve the mission of preventing work-related musculoskeletal disorders, the challenge took place Wednesday during the Closing Keynote of the 2024 NSC Safety Congress & Expo.

HeroWear, a Nashville, TN-based maker of exoskeletons, won a vote by an audience of safety professionals, beating out two other finalists. HeroWear will receive a free one-year subscription to NSC’s Tech Hub Marketplace – a searchable technology directory – along with priority benefits via NSC’s MSD Solutions Lab’s Pilot Grant Program. 

“Since the first day we started working on the suit back in 2017 and 2018 at Vanderbilt University, the goal has been to make them as invisible as possible, and to make it compatible with work so as many people as possible can use it,” said HeroWear Vice President of Growth Paul Nicholson, who showed off the exoskeleton suit’s key features.

Four panelists – including NSC President and CEO Lorraine M. Martin and closing keynote speaker Kate Darling, a research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute for Technology Media Lab – asked questions of the finalists after their three-minute introductory presentations.

Nicholson highlighted the exoskeleton’s modular design and various sizes, as well as potential adjustment points for its chest straps, leg sleeves and shoulder straps. He also drew attention to the different sizes and strengths of the elastic bands that go along the user’s back.

“That lets us fit a very wide range of users,” Nicholson said. “We’ve fit people over 7-foot-5, over 350 pounds, and we’ve fit people under 5-feet tall and under 80 pounds.”

The back bands “take 20% to 40% of the strain off of my back,” Nicholson added.

The challenge’s other two finalists were Hapo – based in southern France – and Iowa’s MākuSafe.

Hapo showcased one of its spring-loaded exoskeletons that has been used in various industries, from surgical centers to agricultural work to warehouses. 

MākuSafe presented its wearable monitoring technology device that gathers data on a variety of potential workplace hazards, including sound, heat, light, air quality and a worker’s motions.

The challenge was presented by the MSD Solutions Lab, an NSC program powered by Amazon.