Medical HAL Lower Limb Type

Overview

HAL (Hybrid Assistive Limb) is the medical exoskeleton that made Cyberdyne's name, a hip-and-knee gait trainer that moves when it detects the wearer's own bioelectric signals rather than a preset pattern. It is used in hospitals for gait treatment of spinal cord injury, stroke, cerebral palsy and a list of neuromuscular diseases such as SMA, ALS and Charcot-Marie-Tooth, and in Japan ten neuromuscular and spinal diseases are covered by public health insurance. The lineup is the adult HAL-ML05, the pediatric HAL-ML07 for 100–150 cm (FDA cleared in May 2024) and the new one-size Medical HAL Lower Limb Type C (HAL-ML08), which fits 150–190 cm in two hip widths and replaced four sizes when Japanese rentals began on 2026-05-20. The catches are weight (13–14 kg), about one hour per battery and the rule that Cyberdyne only rents to medical institutions, never to individuals. Regulatory coverage is broad, with CE marking since 2013, Japanese approval in 2015, FDA 510(k) clearance in December 2017 and the Type C already approved in Japan and Europe. The sibling HAL Lumbar Type is the one Cyberdyne product rented to people at home.