Some days ago, researchers from Minho University (Braga, Portugal) visited Technaid to receive a training about the ankle module of H2 exoskeleton.
They are using one of these ankle-modules in the Research Project “Smart Wearable Orthosis to Assist the Impaired Human Walking”, a multidisciplinary project currently investigated by the Adaptive System Behavior Group (ASBG) at Center for MicroElectroMechanical Systems (CMEMS), University of Minho, Portugal. This project is coordinated by the Professor Cristina Santos and the Ph.D. Student Joana Figueiredo, as well as involves MSc students from CMEMS and clinicians from Clinical Academic Centre of Braga (2CABraga) and Hospital of Braga, Portugal. Dr. Juan C. Moreno from NeuralRehabilitation Group, Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Spain, will also contribute to the technical improvement of this project.
The present project aims the design and development of a control framework based on the principles and organization of the human motion-control system to assist as need injured patients through a powered wearable orthosis. The control framework proposed in this project will incorporate key technologies to tune the adaptive assistance according to the user’s needs. In parallel, the control framework will also ensure a compliant ambulation and an energy-efficient gait through an adaptive impedance control. Moreover, the researchers will explore strategies to actively encourage the user’s participation in the therapy.
For these purposes, the researchers involved an ankle module of H2 exoskeleton (Technaid S.L., Madrid, Spain) to be tailored as a powered wearable orthosis. To perform the aforementioned functions, the investigators will synchronize this ankle module with a wearable multimodal sensory system, which fuses several sensor modalities. Moreover, the wearable ankle orthosis will also be combined with an external subject-specific mechanical structure to ensure its suitable accommodation, usability, and safety.
Clinical studies will be conducted in order to quantitatively assess the rehabilitation effects introduced by the developed smart orthosis during the task-oriented and repetitive therapeutic training face scenarios where the pathological end-users are also treated with pharmacologic interventions. The pathological subjects involved in this project are patients that exhibit drop foot as consequence of a peripheral injury at the peroneal nerve, and post-stroke patients that have a hemiplegic dynamic equinus foot.
Technaid is proud of our direct involvement in the European R+D sector. Assisting to researchers, participating in research projects and the knowledge transfer from those project to the market, improving the cost-effectiveness of the European Research area, are our main reasons for existence.
