A spinal cord injury that blocks all sensation below the middle of his back didn't stop Joey Abicca from standing up and taking a short walk in a Carlsbad gym Friday afternoon.

The Encinitas teen had help from a high-tech device that until recently sounded like pure science fiction ---- a black bionic exoskeleton made by Richmond-based Ekso Bionics.

At a demonstration hosted by Carlsbad nonprofit Project Walk, Abicca levered himself from his wheelchair into the $140,000 device and ---- after helpers strapped him in ---- the 17-year-old calmly pushed himself up using an extra-wide walker.

Using his upper body to tilt his hips forward, Abicca caused the skeleton to move his feet forward and began walking across the floor.

"It's awesome," he said.

The device was on loan to Project Walk, which is trying to raise money to buy one that it can use in therapy for patients such as Abicca.

An exoskeleton uses a rigid frame that roughly parallels the user's real skeleton but is strapped on from the outside. There are electric motors at each joint. Sensors detect motion, providing a steady stream of input to an on-board computer. The computer can move the motors, continually adjusting to maintain balance and achieve forward motion.

Eric Harness, co-founder of Project Walk, said the high-tech device could aid in the painstaking process of "over ground" therapy, where a subject leans on a walker and puts weight on his legs. Therapists move each leg, one after the other, to achieve motion.

Bionics puts the patient in charge ---- he gets to make his body move where he wants it to go, and that, Abicca said, is truly going somewhere.

"It's independence, that's what it is," he said.

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CARLSBAD: Teen takes a walk, with help of exoskeleton

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