Stroke (and in general, any kind of Acquired Brain Damage – ABD –) and spinal cord injuries significantly affect thousands of individuals annually, leading to considerable physical impairment and functional disability. Gait is one of the most important activities of daily living affected in stroke survivors. Recent technological developments in powered robotics exoskeletons can create powerful adjunctive tools for rehabilitation and potentially accelerate functional recovery. A novel lower limb robotic exoskeleton, namely HANK, will represent a significant advance over the state-of-the-art for gait rehabilitation in stroke survivors. Its unique value proposition is based on:
• It incorporates all the existing technologies to control the movement of the exoskeleton, plus the use of EEG signals, facilitating the neuronal rehabilitation of the ABD patients and restoring the neuronal connections.
• It gives to the rehabilitation doctors and physiotherapist the opportunity to use the best movement strategy for each patient, thanks to its independent control system for each articulation (hip, knee and ankle).
• It allows the patients’ movements by controlled directly by the EEG signals (the exoskeleton can be managed directly by the mental orders of the patients), allowing the possibility to walk again for full paraplegic and quadriplegic patients, as these ones affected by spinal cord injuries.
• None of the competitors has implemented the ankle control system. Having the ankle joint control, HANK allows to the patients a smoother movement.
• And, last but no least, it will be have a very competitive price compared with the existing competence
Due to these differential advantages over the existing competitors, HANK will be a first-in-class product on the market. Thus, this proposal is clearly business-oriented, aiming to covers the required steps to pass from the current stage of the technology (TRL 7 – system prototype demonstrated in operational environment -) until TRL9, and to pilots the successful launching of this new product to the market. Specific project objectives include:
1. To make an aesthetic redesign of the exoskeleton (industrial design) and the whole definition of its industrialization, evaluating the manufacturing processes and adjusting costs and quality of the final devices.
2. To manufacture the first prototypes and pre-series, industrially produced.
3. To perform the clinical validation of this equipment, and to obtain the clinical certification, as well as the CE compliance and FDA compliance (USA market).
4. To prepare the pre-commercialization phase, disseminating the project results towards potential customers and assuring a wide diffusion in the media of the benefits of HANK.
5. To update the preliminary business model and business plan, contrasting the initial estimation with potential customers and users.
