Robots are no longer just a science-fiction dream - they're also part of our everyday lives.

Robots help build out cars, vacuum our floors, and now they're also massaging away aches and pain. A new robot is assisting physical therapists in healing patients.

Just two weeks before 23-year-old Marine Mike Delancey was scheduled to return home from Iraq, his worst nightmare happened.

“The bullet hit and came through my left shoulder right here, and it basically travel led across my spine,” he says.

His family was told he wouldn't make it. Mike survived but was left paralyzed. Now, part of his recovery is getting his game back.

“If I try to do certain things like shoot a basketball, you know, it comes right here, and you don't have that right motion,” says Mike.

Mike turned to this robot for help. It works by lengthening tight muscles. A physical therapist positions the mechanical arm over the targeted area. Built-in sensors are programmed to apply a specific amount of pressure.

“It starts actually very subtly, moving and hunting, and it fools the muscle fibers to go and come apart and go from an adhered state and go like this,” says Mike.

After a chiropractor dislocated his joint, Dave Hutchieson was told he would never walk again. The former paratrooper didn't lose hope.

“We were always told never give up. It doesn't matter what happened, never give up,” says Dave.

After a couple months with the robot, he was walking normally. Mike is seeing improvement too. He's back in the game and ready to roll with whatever his life brings.

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