Description du projet
Un exosquelette souple et léger, porté comme un pantalon, qui aiderait les gens à remarcher
De nombreuses affections, notamment les lésions de la moelle épinière et les accidents vasculaires cérébraux, peuvent entraîner une perte de mobilité des membres inférieurs, rendant la marche impossible. Pendant des décennies, il n’existait que très peu d’options, voire aucune, en fonction de la gravité de la maladie. Plus récemment, les exosquelettes robotiques intégrés sont apparus comme un moyen prometteur de restaurer partiellement les fonctions et d’aider les personnes à remarcher. Cependant, la plupart de ces systèmes sont lourds et encombrants. Financé par le Conseil européen de la recherche, le projet STROLL vise à mettre au point un exosquelette robotique souple et portable, semblable à un pantalon. Il exploitera des actionneurs textiles avancés, des capteurs tactiles de la partie inférieure du corps et un contrôle de pointe de la locomotion pour restaurer la capacité de marche des patients atteints de paralysie de la partie inférieure du corps.
Objectif
Imagine putting on a pair of pants, it feels soft like ordinary clothing fabrics, but unlike any other, this one is made of high-performance robotic soft actuators and soft sensors. This is my vision of future exoskeletons being just like everyday clothing, light, soft, and powerful enough to fully support the wearer.
The loss of the ability to walk is devastating for many suffering from stroke, spinal cord injury, and alike. An ergonomic, light-weight exoskeleton can surely help these patients to walk again autonomously. This is challenging due to large gaps between conventional rigid body dynamic-based walking control and soft structures because such an exoskeleton has to integrate high-performance soft mechatronics, to perform walking to an unprecedented extent. I am uniquely qualified to achieve this due to my extensive experience in the fields of robotics and neuroengineering, as well as my leading role in the engineering of world-leading high-performance humanoid robots which incorporate control, modelling, and experimental evaluation.
STROLL will develop a soft wearable robotic exoskeleton to restore the walking capability of patients with lower-body paralysis. The soft wearable exoskeleton that I propose to develop will combine ground-breaking innovations in advanced high-performance textile-based actuators, lower-body tactile sensors, and advanced locomotion control. STROLL will investigate new control strategies and methods for tactile-based control for balancing and walking.
As its ultimate goal, STROLL will take on the ambition to enable a lower-limb paralysed person to take a stroll in the park with an autonomous soft textile exoskeleton.
Despite the methodological difficulties and the uncertainty of the results, the project is more than worth pursuing, as the pay-off is highly significant to benefit the lives of millions of patients suffering from lower-limbs disorders.
Champ scientifique
- engineering and technologymaterials engineeringtextiles
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringroboticsautonomous robots
- engineering and technologymechanical engineeringmechatronics
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringsensors
- medical and health sciencesbasic medicineneurologystroke
Mots‑clés
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme
Thème(s)
Régime de financement
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC GrantsInstitution d’accueil
80333 Muenchen
Allemagne