Dr. Patrick Franks is an expert in wearable robotics design and control with a combined 9-year background in academic research and industry development for rehabilitation and mobility assistance exoskeletons. His groundbreaking research as a PhD student at Stanford University led to significant advancements in exoskeleton assistance, doubling the benefit of the previous state-of-the-art. Dr. Franks joined the team at X to lead experimental controls development, where his expertise guided the team’s research in using AI and reinforcement learning for exoskeleton control. His research has been published in prestigious journals including Science Robotics and the International Journal of Robotics Research.