A leap forward in artificial intelligence control from Georgia Tech engineers could one day make robotic assistance for everyday activities as easy as putting on a pair of pants.Researchers have developed a task-agnostic controller for robotic exoskeletons that’s capable of assisting users with all kinds of leg movements, including ones the AI has never seen before.It’s the first controller able to support a dozens of realistic human lower limb movements, including dynamic actions like lunging and jumping, as well as more typical unstructured movements like starting and stopping, twisting, and meandering.Paired with a slimmed down exoskeleton integrated into a pair of athletic pants that was designed by X, “The Moonshot Factory,” the system requires no calibration or training. Users can put on the device, activate the controller, and go.The study was led by researchers in the <a href="https://me.gatech.edu/">George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering</a> (ME) and the Georgia Tech <a href="https://research.gatech.edu/robotics">Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines</a>.Their system takes a first big step toward devices that could help people navigate the real world, not just the controlled environment of a lab. That could mean helping airline baggage handlers move hundreds of suitcases or factory workers with heavy, labor-intensive tasks. It could also mean improving mobility for older adults or stroke patients who can’t get around as well as they used to.“The idea is to provide real human augmentation across the high diversity of tasks that people do in their everyday lives, and that could be for clinical applications, industrial applications, recreation, or the military,” said <a href="https://me.gatech.edu/faculty/young">Aaron Young</a>, ME associate professor and the <a href="https://www.epic.gatech.edu/">senior researcher</a> on a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-08157-7">study describing the controller published Nov. 13 in the journal Nature</a>.What made it possible for the controller to accurately boost hip and knee joint movements was a whole new approach to the data that feeds the machine learning algorithms.Instead of predicting the task the user is trying to do — say, climbing stairs or lifting a heavy object — the researchers used sensors to instantaneously detect and estimate the human user’s internal joint efforts. That allowed the hip and knee exoskeleton device in the study to provide a 15% to 20% boost to those joints, making it easier for users to do those activities.“What's so cool about the system is, you put it on and now it's part of you. It's adapting to you. It's moving with you. There's no dependency on exactly what you're doing for the exoskeleton,” said Dean Molinaro, a lead author of the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-08157-7">Nature study</a> and a former robotics Ph.D. student. “This was kind of a big swing to say, we're willing to not only take a different crack at how we approach exoskeleton control, but also to bank on machine learning as that translator. All the pieces that had to align to realize this type of task-agnostic control felt like a bunch of tiny miracles.”<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1731548452881-Exoskeleton-AI-Controller-Keaton-Scherpereel-Aaron-Young-Dean-Molinaro-Ethan-Schonhaut-9142-v.webp" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">The research team included, left to right, Keaton Scherpereel, Associate Professor Aaron Young, Dean Molinaro, and Ethan Schonhaut.The controller described in Nature builds on previous work where the team <a href="https://coe.gatech.edu/news/2024/03/universal-controller-could-push-robotic-prostheses-exoskeletons-real-world-use">created a unified exoskeleton controller that could support walking, standing, and climbing stairs or ramps without user intervention.</a>Their new controller expands far beyond those activities and was able to offer seamless assistance across the range of natural human movement, including the transient and sometimes halting motions common in daily life. It also generalized, meaning it worked for activities that weren’t part of the data used to train the algorithms.<iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UVfo__lCNfo?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0&amp;enablejsapi=1&amp;origin=https://www.wevolver.com" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable" data-lf-form-tracking-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-yt-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-vimeo-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true"></iframe>The team collected data on 28 different tasks. They included climbing stairs and ramps, running, walking backwards, jumping up or across, squatting, lifting and placing a weight, turning and twisting, tug-of-war, and calisthenics.Even with the added weight of the exoskeleton, users expended less energy, and their joints didn’t have to work as hard on most of the tasks the researchers tested. On the few activities with no measurable benefit from the exo, users still experienced significant compensation for the extra weight of wearing the device.Most work on exoskeleton devices has focused on a single joint. Devices for both the hip and knee typically are slow and show little metabolic benefit. Using biological data from the joints as the key driver overcomes those limitations.“Coordinating two joints, and being able to augment both simultaneously, is something engineers have struggled with because of the codependency on the joints,” Young said. “That's a beautiful part of our strategy that relies on internal human states: you can then coordinate the two joints naturally and rather effortlessly. That's huge from an engineering standpoint.”The exoskeleton involved in the group’s trials also is new. Instead of a bulky, robotic device worn on top of a user’s clothes, the device was integrated into a pair of athletic pants. It was designed by <a href="https://x.company/">X, "The Moonshot Factory,"</a> an initiative formerly known as Google X that aims to invent radical technologies to solve big problems. X helped fund the research and worked with Young’s team to create the “clothing-integrated” exoskeleton.Work on the “exo-pants” idea continues at <a href="https://www.skipwithjoy.com/">Skip, a company spun out of X</a> and where the study’s other lead author, Keaton Scherpereel, is now an exoskeleton control engineer. The idea is to move this kind of robotic assistance — in terms of both function and ease of use — toward the real world. Slipping on a pair of pants that can support the whole range of daily movement would be far more practical than the reality today.Next steps include finding ways to incorporate other physiological data that could further improve the controller and adapting the controller for different devices.“We’ve proved this approach works really well, but it requires a lot of data,” said Scherpereel, also a former robotics Ph.D. student. “What happens when we have a different exoskeleton, change the design of the exoskeleton, or move sensors? We want to handle those changes in a way that allows us to take advantage of the data we’ve already collected.”Along with Molinaro, Scherpereel, and Young, the research team included Ph.D. student Ethan Schonhaut, Georgios Evangelopoulos at Google, and <a href="https://bouve.northeastern.edu/directory/max-shepherd/">Max Shepherd</a> at Northeastern University.“This is the floor of how good we can do and still the very early phases of these kinds of controllers,” Young said. “Now that we have these amazing deep learning algorithms and this fundamental idea of using the internal human state, the capabilities are pretty endless for where this technology can go.”<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1731548500304-Exoskeleton-AI-Controller-Pants-9137-v.webp" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">The prototype robotic exoskeleton use in the research was integrated into a pair of athletic pants. X, The Moonshot Factory, worked with Young’s team to create the “clothing-integrated” exoskeleton and helped fund the team's AI controller research.<hr><h3 id="isPasted">About the Research<a title="Permalink to this item" href="https://coe.gatech.edu/news/2024/11/no-matter-task-new-exoskeleton-ai-controller-can-handle-it#about-the-research"></a></h3>This research was supported by X, The Moonshot Factory, Georgia Tech’s Partnership for an Advanced Computing Environment (PACE), and the U.S. National Science Foundation, grant Nos. 2233164 and 1830215. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of any funding agency.CITATION:&nbsp;Molinaro, D.D., Scherpereel, K.L., Schonhaut, E.B. et al. Task-agnostic exoskeleton control via biological joint moment estimation. Nature (2024).&nbsp;<a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-08157-7">https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-08157-7</a>

A new exoskeleton controller developed by Georgia Tech engineers works for dozens of dozens of realistic human lower limb movements, including dynamic actions like tug-of-war and jumping, as well as more typical unstructured movements like starting and stopping, twisting, and meandering. Photos & Video: Candler Hobbs

Researchers created a deep learning-driven controller that helps users in real-world tasks, even those it wasn’t trained for.

No Matter the Task, This New Exoskeleton AI Controller Can Handle It

A patient recovering from a limb amputation won’t use a prostheses that isn’t comfortable. A person rehabbing from a stroke won’t use a robotic exoskeleton if the mobility it grants doesn't allow them to perform everyday activities. And a diabetes patient won’t use an insulin pump that doesn’t deliver the appropriate dosage of medicine to control their blood sugar.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1729896386001-IMG_8127_0_0.jpg" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Human-in-the-loop optimization algorithms could greatly improve human-robot interaction with medical devices like this exosuit, dramatically improving the results for patients. (Harvard Biodesign Lab)All of these challenges fall under a concept known as “human-robot interaction,” a critical issue in robotic design and engineering. A new perspective from researchers at the <a href="https://seas.harvard.edu/">Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences</a> (SEAS) delves into a potential approach to improve human-robot interaction. The approach, known as “human-in-the-loop optimization” (HILO), explores the potential of combining individual patient data with machine learning algorithms as a way to fine-tune robotic design and improve results for specific performance metrics. Patrick Slade, Assistant Professor of Bioengineering at SEAS, was first author on the perspective, which was published in Nature.“I hope this perspective can accelerate the development and effectiveness of human-robot interactions when developing robotic systems, especially for medical applications where these systems interact with people,” Slade said. “I’m hopeful that this perspective will encourage researchers to think about humans as complex, challenging systems to design for. HILO can be a tool to maximize the effectiveness of devices that interact with people.”The idea of human-in-the-loop optimization has been around for about 7 years, Slade said, but has yet to be fully adopted into the robotic engineering space. Because every human is different, human-robot interaction is a very difficult concept to predict and design for, which can slow down innovation in the field.“Working with these populations and devices for a while, I’ve seen that when people are introduced to a new device, their conceptions of the device, what they want and how they might use it, change as they get used to it,” he said. “It’s a moving target with dual challenges, where you need them to understand and adapt with the device, and you also want to provide them with something that provides a benefit to the user and is acceptable for regular use. HILO can help inform what the human-robot interaction should be to improve whatever human-robot metric is important to that population. Knowing what effective human-robot interaction is needed, for example, what torque to provide with an ankle exoskeleton to help people post-stroke to walk more quickly and efficiently, can inform the development of effective devices. HILO can also maximize performance of an existing commercial device by systematically tuning how that device interacts with the user. We’ve seen an optimized assistance double the benefits compared to a generic controller for an ankle exoskeleton device, showing HILO can have a big impact on patient outcomes without even changing the device hardware."<blockquote>One challenge in the field of robotics is that people often get treated as robots.Patrick Slade, Assistant Professor of Bioengineering at SEAS</blockquote>Though called an optimization algorithm, Slade described it as closer to a “personalization” algorithm, in that it uses personal data to optimize the device to the individual patient. And because it’s based on machine learning algorithms, the optimal adjustments can be found quickly and without an engineer needing to pour through multiple potential designs.“One challenge in the field of robotics is that people often get treated as robots,” Slade said. “People are complex and often don’t respond to robotic assistance in a predictable way. This paper is posing the idea that a lot of our research intuitions on human-robot interaction aren’t great because people are very complex. If we admit that, we can use this systematic approach to optimize assistance and really accelerate the field. Adopting HILO would really accelerate the field, and patients would see more benefits.”Slade envisions HILO as especially valuable in the earliest design stages, when research is still being done in labs as opposed to field testing finished or nearly finished designs. During those early stages, engineers typically test out numerous different designs and functions to try to hone in on one that meets whatever they determine to be the most important performance metrics. Examples of metrics in medical devices, for example, include muscle contraction,fatigue, walking speed, heart rate, blood glucose levels, or other measures of improved mobility.Using HILO algorithms, designers could quickly determine if a design needs to be adjusted based on individual patient data to maximize its benefit.“HILO allows you to identify the meaningful interactions, then build a portable device based on what you’ve learned,” he said. “Rather than building multiple interactions of a portable device, you could do it in a single shot, which could help accelerate the field.”Conversely, Slade’s perspective suggests even late-stage design or products already on the market could still benefit from these optimization algorithms. HILO is similar to getting a glasses prescription, systematically tuning the human-robot interaction to achieve a desired outcome, similar to a new prescription.“You have a device, you optimize the controller, and now you have a more personalized controller and see better benefits,” he said. “We’ve seen from a few studies that existing portable devices can double their performance if you apply HILO. It’s the same hardware – you just update the controller, and all of a sudden your device is twice as effective. That’s exciting. You could spend years developing something, and then all of a sudden double the performance just by systematically tuning the human-robot interaction.”

Human-in-the-loop optimization algorithms could greatly improve human-robot interaction with medical devices like this exosuit, dramatically improving the results for patients. (Harvard Biodesign Lab)

New research touts effectiveness of individual optimization algorithms

Keeping humans in the loop of robotic design

In this episode, we explore the versatile knee exoskeleton designed to enhance safety during lifting by using a novel design that improves the freedom of movement and safety in comparison to current state of the art.

Podcast: Wear This Exoskeleton & Save Your Knees!

This article was discussed in our <a href="https://www.wevolver.com/profile/the.next.byte" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Next Byte podcast</a>.&nbsp;<iframe height="200px" width="100%" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" seamless="" src="https://player.simplecast.com/3ddb6ef3-e0b1-4983-87ca-84cf2ed8fe2e?dark=false" class="fr-draggable" data-lf-form-tracking-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-yt-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-vimeo-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true"></iframe> The full article will continue below.<hr>A set of knee exoskeletons, built with commercially available knee braces and drone motors at the University of Michigan, has been shown to help counteract fatigue in lifting and carrying tasks. They helped users maintain better lifting posture even when tired, a key factor in defending against on-the-job injuries, the researchers say.“Rather than directly bracing the back and giving up on proper lifting form, we strengthen the legs to maintain it,” said <a href="https://gregg.engin.umich.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Robert Gregg</a>, U-M associate professor of robotics and corresponding author of the study in Science Robotics. “This differs from what’s more commonly done in industry.”Already workers who lift regularly, such as in construction and manufacturing, may use back braces. Back exoskeletons, which use springs or motors to help with lifting, are an emerging technology. But devices supporting the back assume unsafe lifting, or stooping, and back exoskeletons tend to be cumbersome devices that must be deactivated to allow motions that aren’t part of the lifting task, Gregg said.The Michigan team says their knee exoskeletons are the first to support the quadriceps muscles instead, which provide the bulk of the force in safe squat lifting, as a less intrusive way to help protect workers from back injuries. Study participants tested them out with lifting and carrying tasks using a 20 lb kettlebell.The tasks included lifting the weight off the ground and setting it down again, and lifting and carrying the weight on flat ground, up and down an incline, and up and down stairs. The study found that, after becoming fatigued, the participants kept better posture with the help of the exoskeleton, and they also lifted faster—just 1% slower than their pre-fatigued paces, versus 44% slower without the aid of the exoskeletons.&nbsp;“This is especially important when a worker has to keep up with a conveyor belt. Usually, when a worker is fatigued, they’ll keep up with that rate, but with a compromised posture. They’ll bend their back more, and that’s when injuries are most likely,” said Nikhil Divekar, a postdoctoral research fellow in robotics at U-M and first author of the study.&nbsp;The participants felt the benefit, too—they mainly said they were quite or very satisfied, with the exception of walking on level ground, for which they were more or less satisfied. This tracks with the small amount of assistance required by the quadriceps during this relatively easy task; Gregg described it as just enough support to counteract the weight of the exoskeleton.<img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNzI3MzkzMDMxNzk5LWtuZWUtZXhvcy12ZXJ0aWNhbC5qcGciLCJlZGl0cyI6eyJyZXNpemUiOnsid2lkdGgiOjk1MCwiZml0IjoiY292ZXIifX19" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Emily Keller, a doctoral student in robotics at the Locomotor Control Systems Lab, University of Michigan, demonstrates the knee exoskeletons on the steps outside of the Ford Robotics Building at U-M. Photo: José Montes-Pérez, Robotics, University of MichiganOne of the keys to making the exoskeleton so wearable is the motors and the way that they are geared, which enables users to swing their knees freely for a natural gait. The other is the software, which predicts what kind of assistance the user needs by measuring the angle of the knee joint, the orientations of the thigh and lower leg, and the force picked up by a sensor in the user’s shoe.&nbsp;With these three measurements from both legs, it’s possible to work out what motion the user is trying to do, and how much assistance to give. These measurements were taken 150 times per second, enabling the exos to move seamlessly between activities.&nbsp;This approach is in contrast to many exo controllers, which follow predefined patterns for a limited set of tasks. Switching tasks can be a problem for these controllers, and they may need a full second to figure out what the user is trying to do, Gregg said.“If your exo is trying to walk upstairs, and you’re trying to walk downstairs, that could be a problem, right?” he said.The new controller also pairs a physics model with machine learning, which prevents the exoskeleton from making unexpected moves if the user begins behaving differently than any activity included in the controller’s training data.The lab prototypes cost about $4,000 per pair, so Gregg anticipates that if the exoskeletons were produced at scale, they might cost about $2,000 per pair.The 10 study participants, five women and five men, did all the tasks on two different days, one day fresh and the other fatigued. To induce fatigue, each participant performed a series of squat lifts with the kettlebell until they couldn’t continue without a long break between repetitions. All participants had experience with proper squat lifting techniques.&nbsp;The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health.The team has applied for patent protection with the assistance of U-M Innovation Partnerships and is seeking partners to bring the technology to market.Gray Thomas, Avani Yerva and Hannah Frame contributed to the study.Gregg is also an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and mechanical engineering.

Helping out the quad muscles kept study participants lifting safely despite fatigue, with an algorithm that smoothly shifts between lifting and carrying tasks.

Versatile knee exo for safer lifting

Robotic exoskeletons designed to help humans with walking or physically demanding work have been the stuff of sci-fi lore for decades. Remember <a href="https://youtu.be/jtVygtT8VIc" target="_blank">Ellen Ripley in that Power Loader in Alien</a>? Or the crazy mobile platform <a href="https://youtu.be/Z2OLmFw9wR8?si=hIsWKAiRYAWGWbpP&t=85" target="_blank">George McFly wore in 2015 in Back to the Future, Part II</a> because he threw his back out?Researchers are working on real-life robotic assistance that could protect workers from painful injuries and help stroke patients regain their mobility. So far, they have required extensive calibration and context-specific tuning, which keeps them largely limited to research labs.Mechanical engineers at Georgia Tech may be on the verge of changing that, allowing exoskeleton technology to be deployed in homes, workplaces, and more.A team of researchers in <a href="https://me.gatech.edu/faculty/young" target="_blank">Aaron Young’s</a> lab have developed a universal approach to controlling robotic exoskeletons that requires no training, no calibration, and no adjustments to complicated algorithms. Instead, users can don the “exo” and go.Their system uses a kind of artificial intelligence called deep learning to autonomously adjust how the exoskeleton provides assistance, and they’ve shown it works seamlessly to support walking, standing, and climbing stairs or ramps. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/scirobotics.adi8852" target="_blank">They described their “unified control framework” March 20 in Science Robotics.</a>“The goal was not just to provide control across different activities, but to create a single unified system. You don't have to press buttons to switch between modes or have some classifier algorithm that tries to predict that you're climbing stairs or walking,” said Young, associate professor in the <a href="https://me.gatech.edu/" target="_blank">George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering</a>.<h3>Machine Learning as Translator</h3><img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1711697656575-_MG_8945.webp" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">A closeup view of experimental exoskeleton used in experiments that resulted in a universal controller for robotic assistance devices.Most previous work in this area has focused on one activity at a time, like walking on level ground or up a set of stairs. The algorithms involved typically try to classify the environment to provide the right assistance to users.The Georgia Tech team threw that out the window. Instead of focusing on the environment, they focused on the human — what’s happening with muscles and joints — which meant the specific activity didn’t matter.“We stopped trying to bucket human movement into what we call discretized modes — like level ground walking or climbing stairs&nbsp;— because real movement is a lot messier,” said Dean Molinaro, lead author on the study and a recently graduated Ph.D. student in Young’s lab. “Instead, we based our controller on the user’s underlying physiology. What the body is doing at any point in time will tell us everything we need to know about the environment. Then we used machine learning essentially as the translator between what the sensors are measuring on the exoskeleton and what torques the muscles are generating.”With the controller delivering assistance through a hip exoskeleton developed by the team, they found they could reduce users’ metabolic and biomechanical effort: they expended less energy, and their joints didn’t have to work as hard compared to not wearing the device at all.In other words, wearing the exoskeleton was a benefit to users, even with the extra weight added by the device itself.<blockquote>What’s so cool about this [controller] is that it adjusts to each person’s internal dynamics without any tuning or heuristic adjustments, which is a huge difference from a lot of work in the field. There’s no subject-specific tuning or changing parameters to make it work.AARON YOUNG Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering</blockquote><a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/scirobotics.adi8852" target="_blank">The control system in this study</a> is designed for partial-assist devices. These exoskeletons support movement rather than completely replacing the effort.The team, which also included Molinaro and <a href="https://www.meche.engineering.cmu.edu/directory/bios/kang-inseung.html" target="_blank">Inseung Kang</a>, another former Ph.D. student now at Carnegie Mellon University, used an existing algorithm and trained it on mountains of force and motion-capture data they collected in Young’s lab. Subjects of different genders and body types wore the powered hip exoskeleton and walked at varying speeds on force plates, climbed height-adjustable stairs, walked up and down ramps, and transitioned between those movements.And like the motion-capture studios used to make movies, every movement was recorded and cataloged to understand what joints were doing for each activity.The <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/scirobotics.adi8852" target="_blank">Science Robotics study</a> is “application agnostic,” as Young put it. Yet their controller offers the first bridge to real-world viability for robotic exoskeleton devices.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1711697699313-_MG_8771.webp" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Researchers Aaron Young, left, and Dean Molinaro.Imagine how robotic assistance could benefit soldiers, airline baggage handlers, or any workers doing physically demanding jobs where musculoskeletal injury risk is high.Assistive robotics also could help stroke patients regain mobility. Related experiments in Young’s lab are working to understand how their hip exoskeleton and unified controller could be extended to help people recovering from stroke navigate their communities.<iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VEvV1jnqacs?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0&amp;enablejsapi=1&amp;origin=https://www.wevolver.com" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable" data-lf-form-tracking-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-yt-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-vimeo-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true"></iframe><h3 id="isPasted">Helping Amputees Do More</h3>Other projects in Young’s <a href="https://www.epic.gatech.edu/" target="_blank">Exoskeleton and Prosthetic Intelligent Controls (EPIC) Lab</a> are marrying the power of robotics and AI to help adults with above-the-knee amputations navigate more effectively and children recover from neurological injuries.For adults, the lab is imagining new powered prostheses to help them navigate the world. An active study is exploring how AI can learn a patient’s gait and adapt over time to improve walking.Stacey Rice has been working with the team for a year, testing iterations of a leg prosthesis and the accompanying AI controller. She lost her leg to bone cancer 44 years ago, so she’s already seen technology improve the devices available to amputees.&nbsp;The Atlanta native is a multisport athlete and 1988 volleyball Paralympian. She said she can feel a real difference in the amount of effort she expends using the robotic assistance. <blockquote>I realized while I was on the treadmill that I wasn’t using as much energy as if I was using my own prosthesis. For me to have that energy bank is huge. There’s so much energy the body uses when you’re an amputee and you’re walking. To reserve that energy for your day-to-day activities will allow amputees to be more active during the day and do more.STACEY RICE Amputee and Research Study Participant</blockquote><img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1711697760246-_MG_8899.webp" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Dean Molinaro walks up a height-adjustable ramp, left, and similarly adjustable stairs, right, while wearing an experimental exoskeleton. The team used these and other unique tools Young's lab, such as force plates and motion-capture cameras, to collect data in their effort to develop a unified control framework for robotic assistance devices.<h3 id="isPasted">Gamifying Pediatric Rehab<a title="Permalink to this item" href="https://coe.gatech.edu/news/2024/03/universal-controller-could-push-robotic-prostheses-exoskeletons-real-world-use#gamifying-pediatric-rehab" target="_blank"></a></h3>In other experiments, Young’s lab is working with Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and Shriners Hospital to incorporate robotics into a new approach to pediatric rehabilitation that helps patients improve their gait.&nbsp;Kids with cerebral palsy, traumatic brain injuries, and other conditions often undergo physical therapy to help correct walking abnormalities. Incorporating robotics into the process is an area Young is excited about because developing brains are especially good at relearning skills and can recover function over time.“The robotic therapy does what a physical therapist might do manually, but in an automated way. It encourages them to adopt better gait biomechanics,” Young said.In each appointment, the researchers combine a robotic exoskeleton with biofeedback systems through a game-like interface.“When the patients come in, it’s like a video game that they're playing, which both engages them and gives them feedback about their performance,” Young said. “We want them to internalize the learning. The exoskeleton will help them physically achieve their goals, but we need them to retain that and engage in the rehab process.”<h3>Regaining Balance<a title="Permalink to this item" href="https://coe.gatech.edu/news/2024/03/universal-controller-could-push-robotic-prostheses-exoskeletons-real-world-use#regaining-balance" target="_blank"></a></h3>Elsewhere in the lab, Young and his team use a unique virtual-reality treadmill system to study gait and balance, particularly for older adults or people with mobility issues from strokes or amputations.The team uses the platform to introduce significant disruptions while participants are walking, challenging them to keep or regain their balance. The resulting data —&nbsp;largely from young, athletic individuals —&nbsp;is inspiring how wearable robots should operate to help people with balance impairments stay upright.In other words, it’s a busy place. And all in service of making a future of wearable robotics a reality.“For a lot of us, mobility is something we’re able to take for granted. One of the hopes is that this work can translate to people with mobility impairments and improve their quality of life,” Molinaro said. “And also, there are times when mobility is a limitation. So we’re interested in how we push the edge of mobility, both in restoring it for those with impairments but also augmenting it for those of able body to make them even more capable.”

Researcher Aaron Young makes adjustments to an experimental exoskeleton worn by then-Ph.D. student Dean Molinaro. The team used the exoskeleton to develop a unified control framework for robotic assistance devices that would allow users to put on an "exo" and go — no extensive training, tuning, or calibration required. (Photo: Candler Hobbs)

Aaron Young’s team has developed a wear-and-go approach that requires no calibration or training.

Universal Controller Could Push Robotic Prostheses, Exoskeletons Into Real-World Use

Somanity’s story began three years ago when three friends were having a drink. Since he’d been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, Sébastien had been confined to a wheelchair. “The only way for me to walk again someday would be to have an exoskeleton,” he told his friend Mathieu Merian. The problem: Exoskeletons are expensive — very expensive. Having one would cost €150,000 to €250,000. Mathieu is 19 years old. He has just dropped his university electrical engineering track to join the Global BBA program at SKEMA Business School. Plus, he is head of My3D, a company specialized in 3D printing.&nbsp;He has that youthful insolence that has no fear of dizzying challenges, and the naivete to want to make the world a better place. Thus, he got a slightly crazy idea: create the first 3D-printed exoskeleton to allow anyone with a motor disability to once again walk, run, climb stairs and more. In brief, to live normally again and regain full bodily control, all for less than €10,000 out of pocket.The thought could have wafted away in the air, like most ideas launched under the influence, but it culminated in the creation of a new company: Somanity. Three years later, the startup has attracted investors, has its first functional prototype and plans to market its exoskeleton by the end of 2025. Make no mistake: Mathieu Merian has all the expertise and determination needed to turn his ideas into reality.<h2>The challenge: design an affordable, desirable exoskeleton.</h2>Somanity’s calling is simple. Launch a new exoskeleton prototype that allows anyone with a motor disability to walk again, for a price between €10,000 and €20,000.&nbsp;Driven by the desire to reduce all costs in the medical field, Somanity seeks to reduce the price of an exoskeleton to one-tenth by focusing on 3D printing. But its ambitions don’t stop there — the startup also wants to make its exoskeletons as appealing as the latest smartphone.“We’ve done workshops with APF France Handicap to find out what the people involved want from their exoskeleton. One man with a motor disability told us,&nbsp;‘I want an exoskeleton that makes people wish they were disabled.’&nbsp;That’s what we’re attempting to do with a medical device that doesn’t look like one,”, says Mathieu Merian, founder and CEO of Somanity. Specifically, this translates into an ergonomic, modern design for an exoskeleton available in several colors, with a futuristic, decidedly technological look. “3D printing allows us to do things that you can’t normally do at the design level, or at least to act quickly in the design process,” Merian says.<h2>Exoskeleton motorization delivered in record time</h2>The first prototypes rolled out in June 2023. Somanity then began looking for a motorization partner. “I benchmarked the various motors available, and I ran across a document from maxon devoted to motors for exoskeletons. So I contacted the company,” Merian recalls. If maxon didn’t have a standard product to offer within 48 hours, it was still good timing for Somanity, because maxon Switzerland’s medical business unit had just created a concept for an exoskeleton: an assembly called “Exoskeleton Drive” made up of an EC90 Flat motor, a reducer, an encoder and an electronic card, all integrated.“In less than 15 days, we were able to deliver this all-in-one device dedicated to exoskeletons right to Somanity. This concept device integrates enough performances to allow the structures at the start of the project to characterize their needs more precisely,” explains Virginie Mialane-Lacroix, medical market manager maxon France. The startup could then count on maxon technical support to best integrate this product.<img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNzA5Nzk3MzA5NzA1LVNLRU1BLU1haGlldS1NZXJpYW4tTG9yYS1CYXJyYS1QaG90b2dyYXBoeS00Ny5qcGciLCJlZGl0cyI6eyJyZXNpemUiOnsid2lkdGgiOjk1MCwiZml0IjoiY292ZXIifX19" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">The Exoskeleton prototype. © Lora Barra – SKEMA Business School for Somanity<h3>Tight time to market and clarity about the market</h3>“maxon products are very well documented, and we’ve benefited from excellent technical support — so good that in less than a month the first motor was implemented. Before the end of August we ordered the remaining motors to implement all the legs and at the beginning of January we integrated the motor to make the last degree of hip opening,” says the Somanity CEO.“The first six months of this collaboration were ultra high-performance. We are used to working with other startups, but it’s rare for one to have that level of maturity at this stage of the project. Somanity is characterized by its determination and very clear identification of the need, and the means to go along with that need,” Virginie Mialane willingly confides. The startup is, in fact, aware that the product currently offered by maxon isn’t optimal yet, but they know that improvements can be made later. And Virginie Mialane-Lacroix continues: “It sets them apart that they accept the current limits while still focusing on what is essential. That means coming up with a working demo within the time and budget allotted.”&nbsp;<img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNzEwMTU2NTk1NjE2LVByb2pla3QtNTMyMC0xLjM4LmpwZyIsImVkaXRzIjp7InJlc2l6ZSI6eyJ3aWR0aCI6OTUwLCJmaXQiOiJjb3ZlciJ9fX0=" style="width: 769px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">The maxon Exoskeleton Drive. Image credit: maxonFor its part, Somanity is delighted to have a partner that understands the responsiveness challenges of a startup. “Being able to make a phone call, transfer some money and have the motor a week later is priceless. Having engineers who listen, who answer our questions and guide our technical choices, is too,” Merian confirms.Once the mechanical part was validated, Somanity could finalize their design. As of now — February 2024 — Somanity has a final prototype. Sébastien, Mathieu’s friend who has a motor disability, will be able to start the first tests in March.<img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNzA5Nzk3Mzk2OTMyLVNLRU1BLU1haGlldS1NZXJpYW4tTG9yYS1CYXJyYS1QaG90b2dyYXBoeS0xMC5qcGciLCJlZGl0cyI6eyJyZXNpemUiOnsid2lkdGgiOjk1MCwiZml0IjoiY292ZXIifX19" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">The exoskeleton combines various materials and technologies to achieve its goal of comfort and useability. © Lora Barra – SKEMA Business School for Somanity&nbsp;<h2>From medical to space: Somanity exoskeletons are looking far ahead</h2>To respond to their time-to-market challenges, Somanity has chosen to bring out the first version of their exoskeleton as a Class 1 medical device. A second, more powerful version, with enriched functionalities and onboard technologies, can then come out later as a Class IIA medical device.&nbsp;But Somanity exoskeletons aren’t limited to the medical field! “We have a partnership with the European Space Agency (ESA) to make exoskeletons for generating gravity. The objective is to make the body think it is in Earth’s gravity while maintaining the freedom of zero gravity in an international space station,” Somanity’s CEO explains. The purpose? To limit the loss of muscle mass and bone density while saving astronauts long hours spent exercising.<img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNzEwMTU2NTAyODM1LTA2LTEyLTIwMTggMTMtMTctNDkuanBnIiwiZWRpdHMiOnsicmVzaXplIjp7IndpZHRoIjo5NTAsImZpdCI6ImNvdmVyIn19fQ==" style="width: 769px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">The maxon Exoskeleton Drive Image credit: maxon<h3>HMI and IA: exciting future developments</h3>Currently, an exoskeleton’s human-machine interface (HMI) is reduced to a screen and a joystick. Ultimately, Somanity intends to offer an HMI similar to that of screens in cars, with a display of the environment, the possibility of updating its exoskeleton, access to real-time data, and more. “The final goal is always the user’s comfort. Ultimately, when the technology is operational, we’ll also have cerebral control,” the CEO says. By 2028, Somanity also intends to integrate an empathetic assistant into its exoskeleton, to prevent users from suffering mentally and to compensate for the shortage of health professionals. “With these AI-based technologies, it is becoming possible to ease the work of caregivers while improving patients’ lives,” says Merian.<img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNzA5Nzk3NTIyMjcxLVNLRU1BLU1haGlldS1NZXJpYW4tTG9yYS1CYXJyYS1QaG90b2dyYXBoeS0zNS5qcGciLCJlZGl0cyI6eyJyZXNpemUiOnsid2lkdGgiOjk1MCwiZml0IjoiY292ZXIifX19" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">The HMI of the exoskeleton will continue to be refined. © Lora Barra – SKEMA Business School for SomanityIn addition to freedom of movement, the exoskeleton has the advantage of allowing a person previously seated in a wheelchair to assume an upright position, at the height of people they’re speaking to, looking directly into their eyes and no longer at the height of a child. “Sometimes people speak to my friend as if he’s mentally disabled because he is in a chair. Being in an upright position allows people to overcome a psychological barrier!,” the Somanity CEO assures. “In addition to the psychological impact, there is a physical and psychomotor effect: use of exoskeletons combats the secondary effects of the seated position,” adds Virginie Mialane-Lacroix, medical market manager maxon France.<img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNzEwMTU2NTQ0NzQ0LTA2LTEyLTIwMTggMTMtMjEtMjUuanBnIiwiZWRpdHMiOnsicmVzaXplIjp7IndpZHRoIjo5NTAsImZpdCI6ImNvdmVyIn19fQ==" style="width: 769px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">The maxon Exoskeleton Drive Image credit: maxon<h2>Fundraising in progress</h2>Innovations by people for people — these words sum up Somanity’s whole philosophy. To achieve its goals, the startup seeks to raise €2 million to €4 million in 2024. These funds would especially allow them to position themselves on the American market. “We’re looking for investors ready to assist us, because we’re aware that fundraising will come with its share of changes at the team level,” the CEO says. The startup therefore hopes to find investors aligned with the human dimension of its project, especially able to help it with medical validations and with drafting SMQs.Are we heading toward an ultramodern future where disabled people will be envied for their high-tech exoskeletons? “A lot of people think it's great that we’re developing exoskeletons. But it’s also really sad, because the reason we have to do it is that our living spaces are not adapted to people in wheelchairs. To be honest, I look forward to a day when I’ll stop selling exoskeletons because an operation will put people on their feet again. When that day comes, I won’t be the least bit sad to be made obsolete,” explains Mathieu Merian, CEO of Somanity.Find out more: <a href="http://www.somanity.com" target="_blank">www.somanity.com</a>&nbsp;

Somanity aims to revolutionize mobility for individuals with motor disabilities by developing an affordable 3D-printed exoskeleton.

Somanity: Exoskeletons by people for people

In this episode, we talk about how a soft robotic exoskeleton from Harvard and Boston University is allowing patients suffering from Parkinson’s Disease to get their independence back by being able to walk safely without extra assistance.

Podcast: Exoskeleton To Help Parkinson's Patients Walk

This article was discussed in our <a href="https://www.wevolver.com/profile/the.next.byte" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Next Byte podcast</a>.&nbsp;<iframe height="200px" width="100%" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" seamless="" src="https://player.simplecast.com/c7a0deb3-ad50-40fa-8df2-1273193fb185?dark=false" class="fr-draggable" data-gtm-yt-inspected-9="true" data-lf-form-tracking-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-yt-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-vimeo-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true"></iframe> The full article will continue below.<hr> <iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pAWrypkeDXM?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;enablejsapi=1&amp;origin=https://www.wevolver.com" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable" data-lf-form-tracking-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-yt-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-vimeo-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-gtm-yt-inspected-9="true" id="72780686" title="Soft robotic device improves walking for individual with Parkinson’s disease">&nbsp;&nbsp;</iframe>Freezing is one of the most common and debilitating symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, a neurodegenerative disorder that affects more than 9 million people worldwide. When individuals with Parkinson’s disease freeze, they suddenly lose the ability to move their feet, often mid-stride, resulting in a series of staccato stutter steps that get shorter until the person stops altogether. These episodes are one of the biggest contributors to falls among people living with Parkinson’s disease.&nbsp;Today, freezing is treated with a range of pharmacological, surgical or behavioral therapies, none of which are particularly effective.&nbsp;What if there was a way to stop freezing altogether?Researchers from the <a href="https://seas.harvard.edu/" target="_blank">Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences&nbsp;</a>(SEAS) and the <a href="https://www.bu.edu/sargent/" target="_blank">Boston University Sargent College of Health &amp; Rehabilitation Sciences</a> have used a soft, wearable robot to help a person living with Parkinson’s walk without freezing. The robotic garment, worn around the hips and thighs, gives a gentle push to the hips as the leg swings, helping the patient achieve a longer stride.&nbsp;The device completely eliminated the participant’s freezing while walking indoors, allowing them to walk faster and further than they could without the garment’s help.&nbsp;“We found that just a small amount of mechanical assistance from our soft robotic apparel delivered instantaneous effects and consistently improved walking across a range of conditions for the individual in our study,” said <a href="https://seas.harvard.edu/person/conor-walsh" target="_blank">Conor Walsh</a>, the Paul A. Maeder Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences at SEAS and co-corresponding author of the study.&nbsp;The research demonstrates the potential of soft robotics to treat this frustrating and potentially dangerous symptom of Parkinson’s disease and could allow people living with the disease to regain not only their mobility but their independence.&nbsp;The research is published in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-023-02731-8" target="_blank">Nature Medicine.&nbsp;</a>For over a decade, Walsh’s<a href="https://biodesign.seas.harvard.edu/" target="_blank">&nbsp;Biodesign Lab&nbsp;</a>at SEAS has been developing assistive and rehabilitative robotic technologies to improve mobility for individuals’ post-stroke and those living with ALS or other diseases that impact mobility. Some of that technology, specifically an exosuit for post-stroke gait retraining, received support from the <a href="https://wyss.harvard.edu/" target="_blank">Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering</a>, and was licensed and commercialized by <a href="https://rewalk.com/restore-exo-suit/" target="_blank">ReWalk Robotics</a>.In 2022, SEAS and Sargent College received a grant from the <a href="https://innovation.masstech.org/news/baker-polito-administration-awards-harvard-and-boston-university-3-million-assistive-robotics" target="_blank">Massachusetts Technology Collaborative</a><a href="https://masstech.org/" target="_blank">&nbsp;</a>to support the development and translation of next-generation robotics and wearable technologies. The research is centered at the <a href="https://www.movelab.seas.harvard.edu/" target="_blank">Move Lab</a>, whose mission is to support advances in human performance enhancement with the collaborative space, funding, R&amp;D infrastructure, and experience necessary to turn promising research into mature technologies that can be translated through collaboration with industry partners.This research emerged from that partnership.“Leveraging soft wearable robots to prevent freezing of gait in patients with Parkinson’s required a collaboration between engineers, rehabilitation scientists, physical therapists, biomechanists and apparel designers,” said Walsh, whose team collaborated closely with that of Terry Ellis, &nbsp;Professor and Physical Therapy Department Chair and Director of the <a href="https://www.bu.edu/neurorehab/" target="_blank">Center for Neurorehabilitation at Boston University.&nbsp;</a><blockquote>Leveraging soft wearable robots to prevent freezing of gait in patients with Parkinson’s required a collaboration between engineers, rehabilitation scientists, physical therapists, biomechanists and apparel designers.CONOR WALSHPAUL A. MAEDER PROFESSOR OF ENGINEERING AND APPLIED SCIENCES</blockquote>The team spent six months working with a 73-year-old man with Parkinson’s disease, who — despite using both surgical and pharmacologic treatments — endured substantial and incapacitating freezing episodes more than 10 times a day, causing him to fall frequently. These episodes prevented him from walking around his community and forced him to rely on a scooter to get around outside.&nbsp;In previous research, Walsh and his team leveraged human-in-the-loop optimization to demonstrate that a soft, wearable device could be used to augment hip flexion and assist in swinging the leg forward to provide an efficient approach to reduce energy expenditure during walking in healthy individuals. &nbsp;Here, the researchers used the same approach but to address freezing. The wearable device uses cable-driven actuators and sensors worn around the waist and thighs. Using motion data collected by the sensors, algorithms estimate the phase of the gait and generate assistive forces in tandem with muscle movement.The effect was instantaneous. Without any special training, the patient was able to walk without any freezing indoors and with only occasional episodes outdoors. He was also able to walk and talk without freezing, a rarity without the device.&nbsp;“Our team was really excited to see the impact of the technology on the participant’s walking,” said Jinsoo Kim, former PhD student at SEAS and co-lead author on the study.&nbsp;During the study visits, the participant told researchers: “The suit helps me take longer steps and when it is not active, I notice I drag my feet much more. It has really helped me, and I feel it is a positive step forward. It could help me to walk longer and maintain the quality of my life.”&nbsp;“Our study participants who volunteer their time are real partners,” said Walsh. “Because mobility is difficult, it was a real challenge for this individual to even come into the lab, but we benefited so much from his perspective and feedback.”&nbsp;The device could also be used to better understand the mechanisms of gait freezing, which is poorly understood.&nbsp;“Because we don’t really understand freezing, we don’t really know why this approach works so well,” said Ellis. “But this work suggests the potential benefits of a ’bottom-up’ rather than ’top-down’ solution to treating gait freezing. We see that restoring almost-normal biomechanics alters the peripheral dynamics of gait and may influence the central processing of gait control.”The research was co-authored by Jinsoo Kim, Franchino Porciuncula, Hee Doo Yang, Nicholas Wendel, Teresa Baker and Andrew Chin. Asa Eckert-Erdheim and Dorothy Orzel also contributed to the design of the technology, as well as Ada Huang, and Sarah Sullivan managed the clinical research. It was supported by the National Science Foundation under grant CMMI-1925085; the National Institutes of Health under grant NIH U01 TR002775; and the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, Collaborative Research and Development Matching Grant.

Robotic exosuit eliminated gait freezing, a common and highly debilitating symptom

Soft robotic, wearable device improves walking for individual with Parkinson's disease

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://news.engin.umich.edu/2023/10/choosing-exoskeleton-settings-like-a-pandora-radio-station/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Michigan Engineering</a> and has been republished with permission.<hr>Taking inspiration from music streaming services, a team of engineers at the University of Michigan, Google and Georgia Tech has designed the simplest way for users to program their own exoskeleton assistance settings.Of course, what’s simple for the users is more complex underneath, as a machine learning algorithm repeatedly offers pairs of assistance profiles that are most likely to be comfortable for the wearer. The user then selects one of these two, and the predictor offers another assistance profile that it believes might be better. This approach enables users to set the exoskeleton assistance based on their preferences using a very simple interface, conducive to implementing on a smartwatch or phone.“It’s essentially like Pandora music,” said <a href="https://me.engin.umich.edu/people/faculty/elliott-rouse/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Elliott Rouse</a>, U-M associate professor of robotics and mechanical engineering and corresponding author of the study in Science Robotics. “You give it feedback, a thumbs up or thumbs down, and it curates a radio station based on your feedback. This is a similar idea, but it’s with exoskeleton assistance settings. In both cases, we are creating a model of the user’s preferences and using this model to optimize the user’s experience.”<iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OJ2ApTzZU2w?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0&amp;enablejsapi=1&amp;origin=https://www.wevolver.com" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable" data-lf-form-tracking-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-yt-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-vimeo-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true">&nbsp;</iframe>The team tested the approach with 14 participants, each wearing a pair of ankle exoskeletons as they walked at a steady pace of about 2.3 miles per hour. The volunteers could take as much time as they wanted between choices, although they were limited to 50 choices. Most participants were choosing the same assistance profile repeatedly by the 45th decision.&nbsp;After 50 rounds, the experimental team began testing the users to see whether the final assistance profile was truly the best—pairing it against 10 randomly generated (but plausible) profiles. On average, participants chose the settings suggested by the algorithm about nine out of 10 times, which highlights the accuracy of the proposed approach.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1697684045536-ExoChoice-content1.jpg" style="width: 766px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Ellie Wilson, a PhD student in mechanical engineering, demonstrates a new control strategy that customizes assistance provided by a pair of ankle exoskeletons. A machine learning algorithm presents her with two assistance profiles that it has selected based on previous data. She chooses one, and it presents another for comparison. After about 45 choices, most users have found an assistance profile that they choose repeatedly. Photo: Brenda Ahearn/Michigan Engineering“By using clever algorithms and a touch of AI, our system figures out what users want with easy yes-or-no questions,” said Ung Hee Lee, a recent U-M doctoral graduate from mechanical engineering and first author of the study, now at the robotics company Nuro. “I’m excited that this approach will make wearable robots comfortable and easy to use, bringing them closer to becoming a normal part of our day-to-day life.”The control algorithm manages four exoskeleton settings: how much assistance to give (peak torque), how long to go between peaks (timing), and how the exoskeleton both ramps up and reduces the assistance on either side of each peak. This assistance approach is based on how our calf muscle adds force to propel us forward in each step.Rouse reports that few groups are enabling users to set their own exoskeleton settings.“In most cases, controllers are tuned based on biomechanical or physiological results. The researchers are adjusting the settings on their laptops, minimizing the user’s metabolic rate. Right now, that’s the gold standard for exoskeleton assessment and control,” Rouse said.“I think our field overemphasizes testing with metabolic rate. People are actually very insensitive to changes in their own metabolic rate, so we’re developing exoskeletons to do something that people can’t actually perceive.”&nbsp;In contrast, user preference approaches not only focus on what users can perceive but also enable them to prioritize qualities that they feel are valuable.The study builds on the team’s previous effort to enable users to apply their own settings to an ankle exoskeleton. In that study, users had a touchscreen grid that put the level of assistance on one axis and the timing of the assistance on another. Users tried different points on the grid until they found one that worked well for them.&nbsp;Once users had discovered what was comfortable, over the course of a couple of hours, they were then able to find their settings on the grid within a couple of minutes. The new study cuts down that longer period of discovering which settings feel best as well as offering two new parameters: how the assistance ramps up and down.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1697684067237-ExoChoice-content3-1024x683.jpg" style="width: 766px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">A close-up of the exoskeleton worn by Ellie Wilson. Photo: Brenda Ahearn/Michigan EngineeringThe data from that earlier study were used to feed the machine learning predictor. An evolutionary algorithm produces variations based on the assistance profiles that those earlier users preferred, and then the predictor—a neural network—ranked those assistance profiles. With each choice the users made, new potential assistance profiles were generated, ranked and presented to the user alongside their previous choice.&nbsp;The study was funded by X, Google’s “Moonshot Factory,” Robotics at Google (now Google Deepmind), and the D. Dan and Betty Kahn Foundation. The concept is currently licensed by Alphabet spinoff <a href="https://www.skipwithjoy.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Skip Innovations</a>.

Using a simple and convenient touchscreen interface, the algorithm learns the assistance preferences of the wearer.

Choosing exoskeleton settings like a Pandora radio station

Many fluid-based wearable assistive technologies today require a large and noisy pump that is impractical &ndash; if not impossible &ndash; to integrate into clothing. This leads to a contradiction: wearable devices are routinely tethered to un&shy;-wearable pumps. Now, researchers at the Soft Transducers Laboratory (<a href="https://www.epfl.ch/labs/lmts/" target="_blank">LMTS</a>) in the School of Engineering have developed an elegantly simple solution to this dilemma.<iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/forx6TA_1wg?&wmode=opaque&rel=0&enablejsapi=1&origin=https://www.wevolver.com" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable" data-gtm-yt-inspected-9="true" data-lf-form-tracking-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-yt-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-vimeo-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true"></iframe> &ldquo;We present the world&rsquo;s first pump in the form of a fiber; in essence, tubing that generates its own pressure and flow rate,&rdquo; says LMTS head Herbert Shea. &ldquo;Now, we can sew our fiber pumps directly into textiles and clothing, leaving conventional pumps behind.&rdquo;The research has been <a href="http://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ade8654" rel="noopener" target="_blank">published</a> in the journal Science.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1681388882269-f6e5d6b6.jpg" style="width: 766px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">The LMTS fiber pump &copy; LMTS EPFL&nbsp;<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1681388906955-df3aef6c.jpg" style="width: 766px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">The fiber pumps woven into fabric &copy; LMTS EPFL&nbsp;<h2 id="isPasted">Lightweight, powerful&hellip;and washable</h2>Shea&rsquo;s lab has a history of forward-thinking fluidics. In 2019, they produced the world&rsquo;s first <a href="https://actu.epfl.ch/news/nature-a-stretchable-pump-for-the-next-generation-/" target="_blank">stretchable pump</a>.&ldquo;This work builds on our previous generation of soft pump,&rdquo; says Michael Smith, an LMTS post-doctoral researcher and lead author of the study. &ldquo;The fiber format allows us to make lighter, more powerful pumps that are inherently more compatible with wearable technology.&rdquo;The LMTS fiber pumps use a principle called charge injection electrohydrodynamics (EHD) to generate a fluid flow without any moving parts. Two helical electrodes embedded in the pump wall ionize and accelerate molecules of a special non-conductive liquid. The ion movement and electrode shape generate a net forward fluid flow, resulting in silent, vibration-free operation, and requiring just a palm-sized power supply and battery.To achieve the pump&rsquo;s unique structure, the researchers developed a novel fabrication technique that involves twisting copper wires and polyurethane threads together around a steel rod, and then fusing them with heat. After the rod is removed, the 2 mm fibers can be integrated into textiles using standard weaving and sewing techniques.The pump&rsquo;s simple design has a number of advantages. The materials required are cheap and readily available, and the manufacturing process can be easily scaled up. Because the amount of pressure generated by the pump is directly linked to its length, the tubes can be cut to match the application, optimizing performance while minimizing weight. The robust design can also be washed with conventional detergents.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1681388950012-578e7f6a.jpg" style="width: 766px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Fabrication of the fiber pump &copy; LMTS EPFL&nbsp;<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1681388971485-9c7249d4.jpg" style="width: 766px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Woven pump demonstration &copy; LMTS EPFL&nbsp;<h2 id="isPasted">From exoskeletons to virtual reality</h2>The authors have already demonstrated how these fiber pumps can be used in new and exciting wearable technologies. For example, they can circulate hot and cold fluid through garments for those working in extreme temperature environments or in a therapeutic setting to help manage inflammation; and even for those looking to optimize athletic performance.&ldquo;These applications require long lengths of tubing anyway, and in our case, the tubing is the pump. This means we can make very simple and lightweight fluidic circuits that are convenient and comfortable to wear,&rdquo; Smith says.The study also describes artificial muscles made from fabric and embedded fiber pumps, which could be used to power soft exoskeletons to help patients move and walk.The pump could even bring a new dimension to the world of virtual reality by simulating the sensation of temperature. In this case, users wear a glove with pumps filled with hot or cold liquid, allowing them to feel temperature changes in response to contact with a virtual object.<h2>Pumped up for the future</h2>The researchers are already looking to improve the performance of their device. &ldquo;The pumps already perform well, and we&rsquo;re confident that with more work, we can continue to make improvements in areas like efficiency and lifetime,&rdquo; says Smith. Work has already started on scaling up the production of the fiber pumps, and the LMTS also has plans to embed them into more complex wearable devices.&ldquo;We believe that this innovation is a game-changer for wearable technology,&rdquo; Shea says.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1681389002841-5a0f4fdc.jpg" style="width: 766px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">The pumps integrated into a glove &copy; LMTS EPFL&nbsp;<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1681389020252-1c9f5836.jpg" style="width: 766px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Infrared image of the pumps integrated into a t-shirt &copy; LMTS EPFL&nbsp;<hr>ReferencesSmith M, Cacucciolo V, Shea H. Fiber pumps for wearable fluidic systems. Science. 2023 Mar 31;379(6639):1327-1332. doi:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ade8654" rel="noopener" target="_blank">10.1126/science.ade8654</a>. Epub 2023 Mar 30.

The fiber pumps knit into fabric © LMTS EPFL

EPFL researchers have developed fiber-like pumps that allow high-pressure fluidic circuits to be woven into textiles without an external pump. Soft supportive exoskeletons, thermoregulatory clothing, and immersive haptics can therefore be powered from pumps sewn into the fabric of the devices themselves.

Thread-like pumps can be woven into clothes

Carbon fiber has made its way into the design and manufacturing of many different products, and that&rsquo;s because of its impressive performance. One of its most recent cutting-edge applications is human exoskeletons. Imagine wearing a carbon fiber structure over your clothes to assist you at work.&nbsp;There are already exoskeletons on the market to help humans perform better, work safer, and even monitor their health and strain through the Internet of Things (IoT). But there still remain challenges associated with the manufacture of carbon fiber parts for these to become mainstream items. In this article, we&rsquo;ll discuss what an exoskeleton is and why carbon fiber is an excellent material to use. We will also look at current trends for manufacturing carbon fiber composite parts, as well as the challenges and how we might be able to innovate to overcome those roadblocks with engineering ingenuity.<h1>What are exoskeletons?</h1>An exoskeleton, as the term implies, is when the skeleton is external on a living creature. Typically, exoskeletons are seen in nature on animals such as spiders, clams, and other insects. [1] But increasingly, the term exoskeleton is being used to describe a similar structure used to support humans. In this case, the exoskeleton is a piece of equipment a person wears externally that can assist them by providing increases in strength and stability.&nbsp;<img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNjcwODQ5NTMxMTg2LWV4byAyLmpwZyIsImVkaXRzIjp7InJlc2l6ZSI6eyJ3aWR0aCI6OTUwLCJmaXQiOiJjb3ZlciJ9fX0=" style="width: 300px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">An exoskeleton prototype. Image credit: Iberdrola.Human exoskeletons can be purely mechanical, meaning the structure itself supports the worker through elements, such as the frame, hinges, and possibly springs. Exoskeletons can also be electrical and mechanical, incorporating the assistance of an electric motor. For example, the German Bionic exoskeleton in the image below supports a worker&rsquo;s lower back with two servo motors and a carbon fiber frame. The purpose of the exoskeleton is to prevent injuries when workers are performing repetitive operations, including lifting, carrying, and squatting.&nbsp;<img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNjcwODQ5NTk0MjQ1LWV4byAzLnBuZyIsImVkaXRzIjp7InJlc2l6ZSI6eyJ3aWR0aCI6OTUwLCJmaXQiOiJjb3ZlciJ9fX0=" style="width: 300px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">The German Bionic exoskeleton incudes two small motors: Image credit: German Bionic.&nbsp;<h1 id="isPasted">Why is carbon fiber an excellent choice for exoskeletons?</h1>Carbon fiber is being used in many engineering disciplines to replace structures previously constructed with steel or aluminum, because of its strength and stiffness. In order to compare the strength of materials we can examine the ultimate tensile strength. Carbon fiber has an ultimate tensile strength of ~3,500 MPa.[2] Aluminum has an ultimate tensile strength of 70 MPa and steel (ASTM-A36) has an ultimate tensile strength of ~400 MPa. [3]To compare the stiffness of materials we can use Young&rsquo;s Modulus, which is also the ratio of stress over strain. Carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFPR) have a Young&rsquo;s Modulus of ~150 GPa, while aluminum alloys are ~70 GPa and steel is ~200 GPa.[3] These are average figures, and the exact composition of the material will determine the precise Young&rsquo;s Modulus, but as you can see, carbon fiber composite materials have similar stiffness to traditional metals used in structures and machinery. These composites also have two important advantages over traditional metals when it comes to building an exoskeleton.First, composites are much lighter than metals making it easier for workers to wear the exoskeleton and be assisted through repetitive tasks. Second, carbon fiber has the ability to be molded into a complex geometry fairly easily. In comparison, metals must be bought in a certain shape or must have a complicated die designed to form parts. But if you use carbon fiber, you create the part on a mold, using a precise lay-up. This means you can precisely maximize strength and stiffness for your design with minimal mass.&nbsp;Depending on the specific carbon fiber composites you use, you &ldquo;lay up&rdquo; the sheets of fibers in a specific pattern to generate the material properties you require. Again, this is a benefit for the exoskeleton that can be manufactured to support the complex geometries of the human body and the variations in size and shape seen across the population.&nbsp;<h1>Current trends in carbon fiber composite manufacturing</h1>The most common carbon fiber manufacturing methods are still rather labour-intensive. The first method is wet lay-up, which is where the carbon fiber sheets are placed or &ldquo;laid up&rdquo; into the mold and the resin is applied by brush, brush<a href="#_msocom_1" id="_anchor_1" language="JavaScript" name="_msoanchor_1" target="_blank">[DI1]</a> , or spray gun. The second is preglamination, where the sheets of carbon fiber have already been infused with the resin, and after they are laid up in the mold, they are cured in an autoclave. The third is resin transfer molding (FRM), which lays up the fiber sheets into a special mold that will be sealed shut and resin is injected at high pressures. [4]To assist each of these methods, 3D printing has been applied at different stages of the process. The molds themselves are now being created using a 3D printer, which results in a more accurate product that requires less rework and surface geometry quality control than a hand-built or cut mold. In addition, there have been advancements in 3D printing the actual carbon fiber composites, using either a resin with chopped fibers embedded or by printing continuous fibers in the horizonal plane for strategic strength and reinforcement of the polymer. [4]<h1>Challenges associated with carbon fiber composites</h1>Depending on the material requirements, budget, and available skilled labour, any of the methods we mentioned could be used to manufacture a carbon fiber exoskeleton. However, many of these methods are time-consuming, labor-intensive, and very precise, meaning human error in these processes happens quite often. And while some error or variation can be eliminated by using prepreg materials or RFM in order to standardize the amount of resin used, there can still be variation in lay up.&nbsp;Large-scale manufacturing of carbon fiber composites for many different applications share common challenges. Finding, training, and retaining talent to manufacture molds, lay up fiber sheets, and perform quality control are roadblocks for many businesses. While the trends in using 3D printing in some aspects of manufacture could help alleviate the burden on the human labour required, these processes are still expensive and time-consuming. There is a real need in the market for solutions to overcome the challenges of manufacturing carbon fiber components.&nbsp;<h1>Overcoming manufacturing challenges using carbon fiber from Mitsubishi&nbsp;Composites Toolbox</h1>Mitsubishi Chemical Group has developed the Composites Toolbox, a combination of high-quality composite materials, experts, and manufacturing methods to rewrite what&rsquo;s possible in engineering. &nbsp;By replacing traditional materials with composite solutions that meet future performance, consumer, and sustainability requirements, more engineers can help optimize several applications.The Composite toolbox includes a variety of materials; ranging from glass, carbon, or natural fiber reinforcements with a thermoset or thermoplastic matrix. A reduction of the environmental footprint can be obtained with low carbon footprint solutions, such as&rdquo; recycled carbon fiber (rCF), recycled thermoplastics, or biobased thermoset resins.Are you using manual layup and think you need to compromise on freedom of design? The design freedom of some of these materials, such as <a href="" target="_blank">KyronTEX</a>, enables new designs at scale with high process efficiency due to the elimination of various intermediate process steps.<h2>Composite Engineering Challenge</h2>Mitsubishi Chemical Group is inviting innovators, entrepreneurs, and early adopters at universities, (pre-) startups, and scaleups that need fiber-reinforced composites to realize their prototype, part, product, or application.&nbsp;We welcome projects, programs, and companies in the field of new mobility (EV, e-motor, battery casing, etc.), autonomous (delivery) vehicles, people movers, robotics, aerospace, space, bicycles, UAV, AAV, bionics (wheelchairs, exoskeletons, prosthetics), alternative energy (production, storage, transport), self-sensing or self-healing, sport &amp; leisure, alternative (low carbon footprint) fibers and more!The winning entry will be rewarded with a partnership with Growth Garage,&nbsp;Business Incubator of the MCG Advanced Materials Division.&nbsp;This partnership package is valued at $25,000 and will be tailored to the winning team&rsquo;s needs according to their current business and product development stage.&nbsp;<a class="button-main-action" href="https://wevlv.co/homepage-banner" target="_blank">Read more about the challenge here.</a><h2 id="isPasted">Key Dates</h2><table><tbody><tr><td>Composite Challenge Launch&nbsp;</td><td>Monday, October 24th, 2022</td></tr><tr><td>Challenge Close&nbsp;</td><td>Sunday 22 January 2023&nbsp;</td></tr><tr><td>Finalists Announced&nbsp;</td><td>Wednesday 1 February 2023&nbsp;</td></tr><tr><td>Wevolver Community Vote&nbsp;</td><td>From 1-12 February 2023&nbsp;</td></tr><tr><td>Winners announcement&nbsp;</td><td>Tuesday 21 February 2023&nbsp;</td></tr></tbody></table><h2 id="isPasted">About Mitsubishi Chemical Group Advanced Materials Division and Business Incubator Growth Garage</h2>MCG Advanced Materials Division&nbsp;is a leading global manufacturer of high-performance materials in the form of semi-finished products and finished parts. The company has locations in 20 countries and more than 2,800 employees. Its specialty engineering thermoplastics and composites are superior in performance to metals and other materials and are used in a wide range of applications, primarily in the capital goods industry. The company is continuously developing new areas of applications in close cooperation with industry leaders in a wide variety of customer markets.&nbsp;Growth Garage is the Business Incubator of the MCG Advanced Materials Division. Our mission is to support and grow new ideas using our technologies and advanced engineering materials to help tackle some of today&#39;s biggest engineering challenges. We are offering the opportunity for engineers and innovators to pitch us their ideas and receive manufacturing support and services.&nbsp;<img data-fr-image-pasted="true" src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNjY2NTk4MjA2NTg0LU1DRyBsb2dvIGJhbm5lci5qcGciLCJlZGl0cyI6eyJyZXNpemUiOnsid2lkdGgiOjk1MCwiZml0IjoiY292ZXIifX19" style="width: 300px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">References<ol><li>Encyclopedia Britannica [Internet]. Exoskeleton c2017 Jan 31 [cited 9 Nov 2022]. Available from: <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/exoskeleton-anatomy" target="_blank">https://www.britannica.com/science/exoskeleton-anatomy</a></li><li>Dragonplate.com [Internet]. What is carbon fiber? c2022 [cited 16 Nov 2022]. Available from <a href="https://dragonplate.com/what-is-carbon-fiber#:~:text=The%20stiffness%20of%20a%20material,500%20ksi%20(3.5%20Gpa)" target="_blank">https://dragonplate.com/what-is-carbon-fiber#:~:text=The%20stiffness%20of%20a%20material,500%20ksi%20(3.5%20Gpa)</a></li><li>The Engineering ToolBox [Internet]. Young&rsquo;s Modulus, tensile strength and yield strength values for some materials c2003 [cited 16 Nov 2022]. Available from <a href="https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/young-modulus-d_417.html" target="_blank">https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/young-modulus-d_417.html</a>&nbsp;</li><li>Formlabs.com [Internet]. How to manufacture carbon fiber parts c2022 [cited 16 Nov 2022]. Available from <a href="https://formlabs.com/blog/composite-materials-carbon-fiber-layup/" target="_blank">https://formlabs.com/blog/composite-materials-carbon-fiber-layup/</a>&nbsp;</li></ol>

Exoskeletons made with carbon fiber composites using cutting-edge manufacturing techniques can assist workers in performing repetitive tasks.

Could carbon fiber exoskeletons become common assistive wear for workers?

For years, the Stanford Biomechatronics Laboratory has captured imaginations with their exoskeleton emulators &ndash; lab-based robotic devices that help wearers walk and run faster, with less effort. Now, these researchers will turn heads out in the &ldquo;wild&rdquo; with their first untethered exoskeleton, featured in a paper <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05191-1" id="isPasted" target="_blank">published</a> Oct. 12 in Nature.&nbsp;<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-vTk-TRN0C8?&wmode=opaque&rel=0&enablejsapi=1&origin=https://www.wevolver.com" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable" data-lf-form-tracking-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-yt-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" style="width: 767px; height: 430px;"></iframe>After years of development in lab settings, researchers in the Stanford Biomechatronics Laboratory, have revealed their first exoskeleton that can assist with walking out in the &ldquo;wild.&rdquo;&nbsp;&ldquo;This exoskeleton personalizes assistance as people walk normally through the real world,&rdquo; said <a href="https://profiles.stanford.edu/steven-collins" target="_blank">Steve Collins</a>, associate professor of mechanical engineering who leads the Stanford Biomechatronics Laboratory. &ldquo;And it resulted in exceptional improvements in walking speed and energy economy.&rdquo;This &ldquo;robotic boot&rdquo; has a motor that works with calf muscles to give the wearer an extra push with every step. But, unlike other exoskeletons out there, this push is personalized thanks to a machine-learning-based model that was trained through years of work using emulators.&ldquo;On a treadmill, our device provides twice the energy savings of previous exoskeletons,&rdquo; said Patrick Slade, who worked on the exoskeleton as a PhD student and a <a href="https://humanperformance.stanford.edu/" target="_blank">Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance</a> Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford. &ldquo;In the real world, this translates to significant energy savings and walking speed improvements.&rdquo;The ultimate aim is to help people with mobility impairments, particularly older people, move throughout the world as they like. With this latest breakthrough, the research team believes the technology is ready for commercialization in the coming few years.&ldquo;The first time you put an exoskeleton on can be a bit of an adjustment,&rdquo; said Ava Lakmazaheri, a graduate student in the Biomechatronics Laboratory who wore the exoskeleton in tests. &ldquo;But, honestly, within the first 15 minutes of walking, it starts to feel quite natural. Walking with the exoskeletons quite literally feels like you have an extra spring in your step. It just really makes that next step so much easier.&rdquo;<h2>Exoskeletons for the real world</h2>The major barrier for an effective exoskeleton in the past was individualization. &ldquo;Most exoskeletons are designed using a combination of intuition or biomimicry, but people are too complicated and diverse for that to work well,&rdquo; Collins explained.To address that problem, this group relied on their exoskeleton emulators &ndash; large, immobile, expensive lab setups that can rapidly test how best to assist people and discover the blueprints for effective portable devices to use outside the lab. With students and volunteers hooked up to the emulators, the researchers collected motion and energy expenditure data to understand how the way a person walks with the exoskeleton relates to how much energy they are using.These data revealed the relative benefits of different kinds of assistance offered by the emulator. It also informed a machine-learning model that the real-world exoskeleton now uses to adapt to each wearer. Unlike the emulator, the untethered exoskeleton can monitor movement using only inexpensive wearable sensors integrated into the boot.&ldquo;We measure force and ankle motion through the wearables to provide accurate assistance,&rdquo; said Slade. &ldquo;By doing this, we can carefully control the device as people walk and assist them in a safe, unobtrusive way.&rdquo;<h2>A 30-pound boost</h2>The exoskeleton makes walking easier and can increase speed by applying torque at the ankle, replacing some of the function of the calf muscle. As users take a step, just before their toes are about to leave the ground the device helps them push off.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1665885979684-20220518_exoskeleton_8.webp" style="width: 766px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Ava Lakmazaheri, a graduate student in the Biomechatronics Laboratory, walking while wearing the untethered exoskeleton. (Image credit: Kurt Hickman)&nbsp;When a person is first using the exoskeleton, it provides a slightly different pattern of assistance each time the person walks. By measuring the resulting motion, the machine learning model determines how to better assist the person the next time they walk. It takes only about one hour of walking for the exoskeleton to customize to a new user.In tests, the researchers found their exoskeleton exceeded their expectations. According to their calculations, the energy savings and speed boost were equivalent to &ldquo;taking off a 30-pound backpack.&rdquo;&ldquo;Optimized assistance allowed people to walk 9% faster with 17% less energy expended per distance traveled, compared to walking in normal shoes. These are the largest improvements in the speed and energy of economy walking of any exoskeleton to date,&rdquo; said Collins. &ldquo;In direct comparisons on a treadmill, our exoskeleton provides about twice the reduction in effort of previous devices.&rdquo;The next step for the exoskeleton is to see what it can do for the target demographic: older adults and people who are beginning to experience mobility decline due to disability. The researchers also plan to design variations that improve balance and reduce joint pain, and to work with commercial partners to turn the device into a product.&ldquo;This is the first time we&rsquo;ve seen an exoskeleton provide energy savings for real-world users,&rdquo; said Slade. &ldquo;I believe that over the next decade we&rsquo;ll see these ideas of personalizing assistance and effective portable exoskeletons help many people overcome mobility challenges or maintain their ability to live active, independent, and meaningful lives.&rdquo;&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve been working towards this goal for about 20 years, and I&rsquo;m honestly a little stunned that we were finally able to do it,&rdquo; said Collins. &ldquo;I really think this technology is going to help a lot of people.&rdquo;

A close-up of the untethered exoskeleton, which monitors movement using inexpensive sensors. (Image credit: Kurt Hickman)

After years of careful development, engineers have created a boot-like exoskeleton that increases walking speed and reduces effort outside of the lab.

Stanford exoskeleton walks out into the real world

For the past few years Dr Matthew Dickinson, Senior Lecturer at The University of Central Lancashire (UCLan), has been involved in the &lsquo;Primary Engineer MacRobert Medal&rsquo;. Through the initiative, Matthew partnered with a local student to undertake research using the Ultimaker S5 that went on to be recognized at the UN COP26 conference.<section>A firm believer in encouraging young people to think outside the box, Matthew is a keen advocate of the award which celebrates the innovation of young people, connecting them to Universities to turn their ideas into a reality. When Krystyna Marshall, a 15-year old student from Sir John Thursby Community College in Burnley, entered the competition, with an idea to aid the mobility of children, Matthew knew that this idea was special.Krystyna submitted her idea after seeing the struggles of her cousin living with Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA). Krystyna wanted to come up with an idea to provide support and give extra strength to her cousin&rsquo;s back muscles and spine. Krystyna proposed a Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) jacket based on the idea of an exoskeleton and her invention was just one of three to win gold. She is one of six people from across the UK to be recognized as a leading creative problem solver in engineering innovation, through the award.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1655469892836-uclan-exoskleteon_team.webp" style="width: 766px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Krystyna with the exoskeleton model&nbsp;<h2 id="isPasted">The challenge</h2>Fitting an SMA jacket to the human body creates multiple challenges. The initial idea was to manufacture the exoskeleton from aluminium.However, when considering the growth rate of children and the resulting changes that would have to occur to the exoskeleton, costs became too high. Looking for alternative production methods, Matthew turned to 3D Printing. By producing low-cost 3D printed parts, the technology offered a high level of customization and reproducibility enabling the exo-skeleton jacket to become a solution for the prevention of injury and rehabilitation.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1655469917629-uclan-exoskeleton-3d-print.webp" style="width: 766px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">An exoskeleton is an assistive mechanical device worn externally to assist with movement or prevent injury&nbsp;Using his Ultimaker 2+ printer, Matthew designed his first-generation exoskeleton and started prototyping using PLA. His results were both promising and an inspiration for further development but the geometries he was able to design and print became limited by the single extrusion print head of the Ultimaker 2+.<h2>Moving forward: Prototyping the exoskeleton</h2>To move past the limitations of the Ultimaker 2+, Matthew approached <a href="https://www.createeducation.com/" target="_blank">The CREATE Education Project</a>.CREATE Education is a UK reseller that works solely with education organisations to support and provide access to 3D printing and technologies. As part of their offering, they introduced Matthew to the 3D printer loan scheme which was how he was able to step up to the Ultimaker S5.The Ultimaker S5 offers dual extrusion and opened up the new material combinations and possibilities that helped propel the project forward.The progression to the second generation prototype looked at 3D printing with multimaterials such as Nylon and TPU. With the Ultimaker S5, Matthew started experimenting with these materials using a PLA internal core and testing the external shell material in Nylon and TPU to find out which performed the best. Matthew discovered that they could produce components that would conform to a person yet provide rigidity because of the soft exterior and hardened interior.Matthew is currently working on the third generation prototype and has manufactured a much sleeker design. He has also done the first test on a human body to support the lower limbs and the outcome has been very promising.Taking advantage of Ultimaker&rsquo;s ecosystem, Matthew optimized his 3D printing experience via the Ultimaker Digital Factory. Providing him with the ability to print remotely, create a digital library and monitor progress from any location. Matthew was able to work on the project in locations and at times that were convenient for him. The analytics available from Cura and the Digital Factory provide Matthew with material costs and printing times to enable him to plan the production of the exoskeleton and incorporate cost reductions into new iterations.<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pa5iyTwCLdo?&wmode=opaque&rel=0&enablejsapi=1&origin=https://www.wevolver.com" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable" data-lf-yt-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" style="width: 766px; height: 431px;"></iframe><h2 id="isPasted">The results</h2>Through the use of the Ultimaker S5, Krystyna&rsquo;s idea to improve her cousin&#39;s life went from concept and design to prototyping and manufacturing in just six months. Matthew has stated that without the reliability and reproducibility of the Ultimaker S5 combined with Ultimaker Digital Factory software, he would not have been able to complete the project in such a short period of time.Following the completion of the project, Krystyna, Matthew, and his team at UCLan were named the inaugural winners of the 2021 Primary Engineer MacRobert Medal at COP26.Matthew is now working with medical students at UCLan to look at how bacteria can transfer to the exoskeleton from a human body. Professors from the university&#39;s biomechanics department are also working on this project to support it from a human ergonomics perspective. They are currently working on the third-generation prototype and have manufactured a much sleeker design. After completing the first test on a human body that supports the lower limbs, the outcome was very promising and they will soon reveal this design.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1655469974115-uclan-3d-print-medical-model.webp" style="width: 766px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">An assistive device prototype made with 3D printed parts&nbsp;In addition to Matthew&rsquo;s work within education, he has also become a chair member on the subcommittee for the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM). He is now advising the international exoskeleton standards to ensure exoskeletons are manufactured safely for human use. His involvement with the ASTM has enabled him to interface with international organizations, such as Ford, Boeing, NASA, and The UK Space Agency.Through the combined efforts of Matthew and the ASTM, the technology behind exoskeletons is being introduced and taught to students in the UK and the USA. Their goal is to educate and inspire students about the human enhancing benefits of exoskeletons. To do this they have produced 5 short 10-minute episodes of interviews with industry professionals along with a design and build your own exoskeleton challenge. The challenge has been created by Matthew and this is now making introducing 3D printing into schools more accessible.Matthew hopes to see the accessibility of exoskeletons soar in the not-so-distant future. His prediction is that 3D printing will be used by everyone to replace parts at home to help them become less reliant on waiting for parts from the manufacturer.</section>

An exoskeleton is an assistive mechanical device worn externally to assist with movement or prevent injury

Matthew partnered with a local student to undertake research using the Ultimaker S5 that went on to be recognized at the UN COP26 conference.

UCLan: 3D printing award-winning medical research into exoskeletons

Director of Installation and Maintenance for VodafoneZiggo, Nicole Hoebink lives &ldquo;happily&rdquo; in Den Bosch with her husband and her 14-year-old son. Walking their dogs is one of her favorite activities to relax and clear up her mind. Nicole has a background in economics. She describes herself as very customer-centered and explains she has always been concerned with the customer and everything that revolves around it. Her approach for successful customer service? &ldquo;I work with my team to motivate them because I believe that people truly make a difference when contributing to a great customer experience.&rdquo; For her, diversity and inclusion are critical, as long as they are paired with good leadership.<h2>You have had several interesting working experiences before VodafoneZiggo. How long have you been in your latest role?</h2>I started my career in banking. Quickly I realized that I loved working with people, making things better, and delivering outstanding results. After that, I worked for a big kitchen company, where I had to implement a customer service. My start at VodafoneZiggo is actually a funny story. When I accepted Vodafone&#39;s offer, in 2016, as Head of Customer Services for B2B and B2C, we already knew about the upcoming joint venture between Vodafone and Ziggo at the end of the year. So I often heard: &quot;Nicole, you had a great job, and now you are moving to a company that is going to have a major change soon. You might not even have a job after that. What are you doing?&quot; But, typical me, I thought that integrating two massive forces like Vodafone and Ziggo was a great challenge, and I wanted to be part of it and learn from it.The Director of Customer Operations asked me to apply for the function of Installation and Maintenance Director. I was not even sure what this meant. Now, I oversee all Technicians, Supply chain, Order Fulfillment and Support departments. I love it if I can influence things to make them better - and that&#39;s what I&#39;ve been doing for four and a half years now.<h2>Give us some examples of challenging aspects of your daily tasks and how you tackle them.</h2>It is tricky to stay connected with all the technicians we have all over the Netherlands (our team has more than 1000 technicians), so we must create means for that. Most of the day, they are alone with the customer. So we developed a special app to ensure that they have easy ways to reach out to us.Another challenge is that the population of technicians is getting older, which means they sometimes have a hard time performing their tasks - digging in the ground to restore damaged cables, for example, is not easy work. So we came up with what is called the Exoskeleton. The Exoskeleton is a wearable device that works in tandem with the user. It supports shoulders and legs. We have many technicians who are fully able to work again. It doesn&#39;t replace going to the physician as it doesn&#39;t repair anything on your body. But it helps you move better without pain.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1654601438211-exoskelet.png" style="width: 766px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib"><h2 id="isPasted">How has the pandemic affected your work?</h2>It was undoubtedly the most challenging situation ever. We just became indispensable: telecom providers are responsible to keep people and vital services connected. There was a massive need in both in technical capacity and customer assistance. With established home offices, children taking online lessons, and leisure reduced to virtual sessions, people naturally used more connectivity in their homes.However, servicing customers in a lockdown was a challenge. We needed to make sure customers and our colleagues were safe whenever there was onsite assistance needed. We organized several online sessions with my teams to update everyone, make sure they were safe, and inspire them, reminding our technicians they were basically the most important people in the organization at that moment, as they were the ones in the clients&rsquo; homes helping them. Understandably there were still some worries on how to minimize any risks for customers and colleagues. So we quickly organized a remote assistance department because, in several cases, the customer just needs some guidance, and the necessary aid doesn&#39;t require a visit. This way, we avoided direct contact between our technicians and the customers as much as possible.<h2>How is it for you to be a female in a male-dominated field?</h2>I don&#39;t see it as a problem or a challenge nowadays. In the beginning, I experienced difficulties, sure. The kitchen company I mentioned was very traditional, and I was one of the first women to hold a management position there. It was my first experience, and I had to work very hard to prove that I was more than capable to do this job. But once I did that, they were great and started giving me new projects and challenges. It was nice to see that it is possible to change opinions on this matter.If you are not that expressive, it can be tricky, because it is true, you have to work very hard in meetings, for example, to get people to listen to you. Within VodafoneZiggo, about 95% of all technicians are male. But when you engage in a friendly manner and make clear what to expect from you and what you expect from them, there is no problem.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1654601519868-IMG_79451.jpg" style="width: 766px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib"><h2 id="isPasted">How can leadership enhance diversity in the workplace?</h2>Diversity is essential, at the same time the differences in character, thinking, and experiences are also important than the focus on a specific gender, color, or religion. Those are the things that make a great team, from my perspective. Coming from different backgrounds and different characters and perspectives ensures that people have distinct points of view. Even though the team of technicians are mostly male, I still feel like I&#39;m in a very diverse environment because I automatically see different personalities and histories when we work together.Diversity only works when paired with inclusion, equity, and good leadership that listens and gives people space and freedom to contribute to the team. Good leadership also motivates team members to be openminded to investigate their own biases and blind spots and educate themselves. If you create a culture where people listen and are listened to, are open for feedback, and look at their blind spots, you can do great things together.<h2>Who has been your biggest inspiration or role model throughout your career?</h2>Some people were important throughout different moments of my life. My father encouraged me to go out there, learn, and be open to doing new things. He was the one I could always call to chat about my working or private life and discuss the challenges I was facing. Then, there was this friend who inspired me to look differently at things and broaden my horizons. And there was a boss of mine whose conduct made me think, &quot;wow, that&#39;s the kind of attitude that can have a real impact in the world.&quot;I owe a lot to several different individuals regarding how they inspired and empowered me to be a better version of myself. Actually, everywhere I am, I try to look at people and observe how they act and communicate to see if I can learn from that. Any person can be inspiring for you in their distinctive way - you just have to be attentive.<h2>What would be your advice for other aspiring females in the tech environment?</h2>First of all, stay close and true to yourself. Second, listen: really, sincerely. Be curious, open, understanding. Be there to engage and inspire them. Furthermore, I always make sure that when I make a promise, to a colleague or an organization, I live up to my word. That makes you a reliable person, and I think that&#39;s very important.

Director of Installation and Maintenance for VodafoneZiggo, Nicole Hoebink lives “happily” in Den Bosch with her husband and her 14-year-old son. Walking their dogs is one of her favorite activities to relax and clear up her mind. Nicole has a background in economics.

Fe+male Tech Heroes Role Models 23 - Nicole Hoebink: 'Diversity only works when paired with inclusion, equity, and good leadership'

Many of our daily activities involve our hands&rsquo; prehensile abilities. While able-bodied people don&rsquo;t think twice when using a spoon or lifting a glass, these actions are nearly impossible for someone unable to grasp things with their fingers. Nearly 12 million people worldwide survive a stroke every year, and half of them are left with at least some limits on the use of their hands. Various portable, robotic systems as well as human-machine interfaces have been developed over the last few years to address this problem, yet they are typically too complex or expensive for daily use.<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/t1Nipm_wJzw?&wmode=opaque&rel=0&enablejsapi=1&origin=https://www.wevolver.com" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable" data-lf-yt-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" style="width: 768px; height: 428px;" data-gtm-yt-inspected-11="true" id="47173731"></iframe>Emovo Care has now come up with a device that is specifically designed to overcome these obstacles. The startup&rsquo;s engineers developed Emovo Grasp with the help of disabled users over the course of several years, and then improved it further through several rounds of testing in hospitals and rehabilitation centers. The company recently gained an ISO European certification needed to market their product as a medical device.<h2>The hand automatically adjusts</h2>The term &ldquo;exoskeleton&rdquo; often has daunting, futuristic connotations. In recent years, however, these devices have gotten smaller and smaller and will soon be available for regular use by those who most need them. Emovo Grasp consists of two patented, artificial tendons resembling thin cables inserted into a sheath. They attach along the back of the hand using silicon rings placed on each finger. The motor and the remote control, which lets the user adjust the force being applied, are in small, separate cases. This design frees up the palm of the hand and the tips of the fingers in order to maximize sensory input.When activated by the user, the device applies light pressure on the index then the middle finger so that they each pivot and come into contact with an object. The hand automatically adjusts its grasp on even irregularly shaped objects to ensure the most natural movement possible. Another button on the remote control gives the opposite command, so that the cables generate a pulling force that causes the fingers to straighten and release the object. The artificial, bio-inspired tendons are similar to the hand&rsquo;s natural system of muscles and tendons. &ldquo;Our design produces both gentle movements and a strong grasp,&rdquo; says CEO Luca Randazzo, who developed this technology during his thesis and postdoc at the EPFL Brain-Machine Interface and Biorobotics Laboratories. The device itself never acts on its own &ndash; the user is always in control so they can avoid dropping things or gripping at the wrong time.<blockquote>Patients could train for an extra 15 minutes each day following their standard treatment, or take the device home to continue their rehabilitation. This device is very promising because repetition is key to progress.<footer>Anne-Lise Joray-Tendon, a physiotherapist at the Centre Rencontres</footer></blockquote><h2>&ldquo;Repetition is key to progress&rdquo;</h2><img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNjUyNzk1Mzk5MDkxLTYyOTV4NDE5OS5qcGciLCJlZGl0cyI6eyJyZXNpemUiOnsid2lkdGgiOjk1MCwiZml0IjoiY292ZXIifX19" style="width: 768px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">&copy; 2022 Alain HerzogMore than a hundred people &ndash; patients, therapists and neurologists &ndash; provided input on Emovo Grasp through longitudinal studies and guided discussions during the device&rsquo;s development process. Recently, its benefits have been noted by neurologists and therapists at the Centre Rencontres de Courfaivre in the Jura region, and in Italy and Austria, where around 30 brain injury patients are currently participating in a clinical study. Anne-Lise Joray-Tendon, a physiotherapist at the Centre Rencontres, sees great therapeutic value in the device: &ldquo;Patients could train for an extra 15 minutes each day following their standard treatment, or take the device home to continue their rehabilitation. This device is very promising because repetition is key to progress.&rdquo;The startup is only a small part of Randazzo&rsquo;s mission. &ldquo;My sister is disabled, and I&rsquo;ve always been keen to develop simple devices that can help people in their everyday lives,&rdquo; he says. Emovo Grasp is not designed to restore full functionality to the user, but enabling a disabled person to make even a few essential movements is often a small revolution in itself.&ldquo;I remember the first time I tried this device out,&rdquo; says Balz Heusler, one of the first users. &ldquo;The next day, after seven years of complete immobility, I could move my index finger two millimeters without help &ndash; that was amazing.&rdquo; Emovo Care co-founder and COO Iselin Fr&oslash;ybu adds: &ldquo;We are still collecting data to develop reliable statistics, but patients report that after the first few uses they feel that their hand is part of their body again, whereas they used to just neglect it.&rdquo;<h2>A medical device company<img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNjUyNzk1NDYxMDM4LWFmZTE4YTMxLmpwZyIsImVkaXRzIjp7InJlc2l6ZSI6eyJ3aWR0aCI6OTUwLCJmaXQiOiJjb3ZlciJ9fX0=" style="width: 766px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Emovo Care&#39;s Team &copy; 2022 Alain Herzog&nbsp;</h2>&ldquo;We&rsquo;re now a recognized medical device company and not just a team of engineers making cool things in their lab,&rdquo; Randazzo says with a smile. The company has sought to keep the cost of Emovo Grasp down to make it accessible to more people, and they made it easy to use so that patients can operate it on their own.Emovo Care will provide its device to clinics and research institutions interested in collaborating. And the company is currently raising funds with an eye towards a market launch next year. After that, they plan to further develop their invention. &ldquo;For example, we plan to integrate an application that compiles data to show patients where they are in the rehabilitation process,&rdquo; says Randazzo, &ldquo;and we want to add more intuitive control features, such as interpreting the patient&rsquo;s intention through brain or muscle signals.&rdquo;

Working closely with users and therapists, EPFL spin-off Emovo Care has developed a light and easy-to-attach hand exoskeleton for people unable to grasp objects following a stroke or accident. The device has been successfully tested in several hospitals and rehabilitation centers.