Descrizione del progetto
Tornare a camminare grazie a un esoscheletro morbido e leggero, indossato come dei pantaloni
Molte patologie, tra cui le lesioni del midollo spinale e l’ictus, possono provocare la perdita di mobilità degli arti inferiori, rendendo impossibile la deambulazione. Per decenni le opzioni volte a mitigare queste condizioni, a seconda della loro gravità, sono state limitate o nulle; più recentemente, tuttavia, gli esoscheletri robotici integrati sono emersi come metodo promettente per ripristinare parzialmente la funzione deambulatoria, aiutando le persone a tornare a camminare. Ciononostante, la maggior parte di queste soluzioni sono sistemi pesanti e ingombranti. Finanziato dal Consiglio europeo della ricerca, il progetto STROLL prevede di sviluppare un esoscheletro robotico morbido e indossabile, da indossare in modo analogo a un paio di pantaloni. Il progetto sfrutterà attuatori avanzati basati su tessuti, sensori tattili per gli arti inferiori e un controllo avanzato della locomozione allo scopo di ripristinare la capacità di camminare dei pazienti affetti da paralisi della parte inferiore del corpo.
Obiettivo
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.
Campo scientifico
- 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
Parole chiave
Programma(i)
- HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme
Argomento(i)
Meccanismo di finanziamento
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC GrantsIstituzione ospitante
80333 Muenchen
Germania