Acquisition of a Self-Balancing Powered Exoskeleton for Mobility and Physical Rehabilitation

获得用于移动和身体康复的自平衡动力外骨骼

• 批准号: 10415411
• 负责人: Saikat Pal
• 金额: $ 20.5万
• 依托单位: NEW JERSEY INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-08-01 至 2023-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10415411
• 关键词: Address; Characteristics; Clinical; Communities; Crutches; Data; Devices; Equilibrium; Funding; Gait; Goals; Hand; Home; Human; Individual; Interdisciplinary Study; Knowledge; Laboratories; Locomotion; Lower Extremity; Performance; Persons; Physical Rehabilitation; Population; Quality of life; Rehabilitation therapy; Request for Proposals; Research; Research Project Grants; Robot; Self-Help Devices; Training; United States; United States Food and Drug Administration; United States National Institutes of Health; Vulnerable Populations; Walkers; Work; arm; efficacy testing; exoskeleton; experimental study; falls; functional independence; human-robot interaction; improved; mobility rehabilitation; nervous system disorder; patient population; peer; powered exoskeleton; robot exoskeleton; technology development; virtual reality; virtual reality simulator

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT There is a strong need at NJIT and its research and clinical collaborators to develop a deeper understanding of human-robot interaction during exoskeletal-assisted locomotion (EAL). To address this need, the proposal requests funding to acquire a self-balancing, hands-free lower extremity exoskeleton and test the efficacy of this device to promote functional independence in people with neurological disorders. The long-term goal of this work is to enable robotic exoskeletons to integrate seamlessly for in-home and community use, restoring mobility and quality of life of individuals with neurological disorders on par with their able-bodied peers. Although robotic exoskeletons have tremendous potential, current devices fall short of safely restoring mobility in individuals with neurological disorders. This is in large part because robotic exoskeletons for rehabilitation are relatively new, with commercial devices receiving Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approvals in the past seven years (ReWalk in 2014, Indego and Ekso in 2016). The growing demand for robotic exoskeletons has exposed two critical barriers to safe and sustained use: 1) the bounds of human-robot performance during EAL are not well-understood because empirical data under controlled laboratory settings do not exist or are not available to the research community; and 2) it is difficult and prohibitively expensive to conduct the necessary experiments to characterize systematically human-robot performance during EAL. In addition, all three FDA-approved devices currently used in the United States require hand-held crutches or a walker. This excludes a subset of population with neurological disorders who do not have adequate control or strength in their arms. The crutches/walker also limit the intensity and range of activities a user can engage in while in the robotic exoskeleton, limiting the utility of such assistive devices to regain functional independence and quality of life. The acquisition of the self-balancing, hands-free exoskeleton would greatly strengthen on-going research funded by the NIH and other federal agencies. These interdisciplinary research projects span a large range, including controlled experiments in laboratory settings to acquire fundamental knowledge about human-robot interaction in exoskeletons, developing subject-specific virtual simulators of EAL, understanding the efficacy of EAL to improve gait characteristics and functional independence in patient populations, and developing virtual reality platforms for training vulnerable populations in exoskeleton use. Collectively, these projects will provide the much-needed empirical data and technology developments to accelerate integration of robotic exoskeletons for in-home and community use.

项目摘要/摘要 NJIT及其研究和临床合作者非常需要更深入地了解 外骨骼辅助运动（EAL）期间的人类机器人相互作用。为了满足这一需求，提案 请求资金以获得自动平衡，免提下肢外骨骼并测试此事的功效 促进神经系统疾病患者功能独立性的设备。这个长期目标 工作是为了使机器人外骨骼能够无缝集成在家中和社区使用，以恢复移动性 神经系统疾病的个体的生活质量与他们健全的同龄人相提并论。 尽管机器人外骨骼具有巨大的潜力，但目前的设备却没有安全恢复 神经系统疾病患者的流动性。这在很大程度上是因为机器人外骨骼的 康复相对较新，商业设备接受食品和药物管理局（FDA） 在过去的七年中的批准（2014年重新浏览，2016年的Indego和Ekso）。对机器人的需求不断增长 外骨骼已经暴露了两个关键障碍，以实现安全和持续的使用：1）人类机器人的界限 EAL期间的性能并不理解，因为在受控实验室环境下的经验数据 研究界不存在或不存在； 2）困难且过于昂贵 进行必要的实验，以表征EAL期间人类机器人的性能。在 此外，美国目前在美国目前使用的所有三种FDA批准的设备都需要手持拐杖或 沃克。这不包括一个人群的一部分，患有神经系统疾病的人群没有足够的控制或 他们怀里的力量。拐杖/沃克还限制了用户可以参与的强度和范围 在机器人外骨骼中，限制了这种辅助设备的效用，以恢复功能独立性 和生活质量。 获得自动平衡，免提外骨骼的获取将大大加强正在进行的研究 由NIH和其他联邦机构资助。这些跨学科研究项目范围很大， 包括在实验室环境中进行的受控实验，以获取有关人类机器人的基本知识 外骨骼中的相互作用，开发特定于主题的EAL虚拟模拟器，了解 EAL改善患者人群的步态特征和功能独立性，并发展虚拟 培训外骨骼使用中脆弱人群的现实平台。总的来说，这些项目将提供 急需的经验数据和技术发展，以加速机器人外骨骼的整合 用于家庭和社区使用。