Editor’s Note: RoboCT develops exoskeletons for rehabilitation and mobility assistance. IDC’s 2026 report on China’s 2025 exoskeleton market places RoboCT among the country’s leading vendors across medical rehabilitation, consumer assistance and industrial applications.
A steep station exit, the final flights to a walk-up apartment, or the slow walk home after a long day: most of us notice the effort these short distances demand.
But for someone recovering from a stroke, living with a spinal injury or simply losing confidence in their balance, a few steps can become a calculation.
That small gap between wanting to move and being able to do so is where exoskeleton makers are trying to build a business. Once confined to clinics, labs and factory trials, exoskeletons are now moving into community care, outdoor use, and consumer markets.
China is a key test market. IDC’s 2026 report estimates its 2025 exoskeleton market at more than RMB 1.6 billion and roughly 26,000 units, with medical rehabilitation leading by value and consumer-assistance devices accounting for over 70% of shipments—signaling a shift from specialist medical equipment toward multi-purpose wearable tools.
Hangzhou-based RoboCT is one of the companies working to bridge that divide, starting with clinical rehabilitation, then expanding into the broader market for movement assistance.
The discipline of the gait cycle
Founded in 2017, RoboCT initially focused on lower-limb rehabilitation. Its technology stack spans motors, reducers, joint modules, sensors and control algorithms, and it was an early entrant into China’s NMPA-regulated rehabilitation-device market.
Rehabilitation exoskeletons are more than motorized braces. They must fit individual patients and work within therapist-led training. That means, regulatory clearance is not proof of better outcomes, but it sets a bar that consumer devices do not necessarily meet.
A 2025 procurement award for Guangzhou University lists several RoboCT systems, including lower-limb, seated/lying and research exoskeletons, plus a gait-analysis platform. And in a 2024 profile published by the Chinese Association of Rehabilitation Medicine, five RoboCT rehabilitation series were reported to hold relevant NMPA registrations.
From the ward to the walking path
The more difficult commercial question is whether clinical engineering can be translated into everyday mobility without overselling what a wearable robot can achieve.
RoboCT’s consumer push has also drawn fresh capital. In March 2026, it raised more than RMB100 million in a Series B+ round, led by ABC Capital—its second financing round within a year. The proceeds would support domestic and overseas expansion of consumer exoskeletons, R&D, registration of new brain-computer-interface products and channel building.
By July 2026, RoboCT had begun producing its GoGo mobility-assistance exoskeleton at a new Wuxi facility. Designed for walking and outdoor use rather than formal gait therapy, the battery-free model weighs about 2.3 kilograms and uses a hip-mounted motor. The facility started with two production lines, each capable of producing roughly 150 units.
GoGo has a different design brief from RoboCT’s hospital-based rehabilitation systems. It needs to be light, easy to wear and dependable without clinical supervision. The launch marks the company’s move into consumer mobility assistance.
A delegation from Luxembourg-based Hôpitaux Robert Schuman recently visited its headquarters to learn about the company’s exoskeleton products, according to an Oct. 7, 2026 post by RoboCT. | IMAGE CREDIT: RoboCT
Whether that becomes a durable habit rather than a novelty will depend on comfort, price, training and after-sales support as much as motor torque, however.
A global field with different answers
International peers show how different product designs lead to different markets, and how exoskeleton makers build around a specific setting.
In the U.S., Ekso Bionics focuses its EksoNR system on supervised neurological rehabilitation. France’s Wandercraft centers on self-balancing gait training with its Atalante X, while Germany’s Ottobock developed its passive Paexo system for reducing strain during overhead industrial work.
RoboCT’s strategy is to carry a core set of motor, sensor and control capabilities from clinical rehabilitation into adjacent markets. The commercial logic is diversification. According to IDC’s 2026 report on China’s 2025 exoskeleton market, medical rehabilitation generates most of the sector’s value, consumer-assistance products drive most unit shipments, and industrial applications serve a separate business market.
By spanning these segments, RoboCT could address more than one buyer group as the market develops, but the trade-off is that each use case still requires its own sales channels, safety standards and service model.
Exporting more than hardware
RoboCT’s overseas strategy follows the same segmented logic. By 2025, its exoskeletons had reached Japan, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates. In 2026, Chinese rehabilitation-robot makers, including RoboCT, were moving beyond exports of individual machines toward application solutions and industrial systems.
A rehabilitation system requires registration, clinician training and local service; a consumer device depends more on fit, distribution and after-sales support. Chinese exoskeleton makers seeking overseas growth will need to build certification, distribution, service and intellectual-property capabilities.
RoboCT has also tested a direct-to-consumer route through Ascentiz, its overseas consumer brand. Its Kickstarter campaign drew 2,301 backers and more than HK$20.6 million in pledges. How those pledges translate into sustained use and an established support network should become clearer as the products reach more users.
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