TECHNAID S.L

Project Key Data

Full title of the project:
Smart Wearable Robot for joint Ankle Rehabilitation

Short name of the project:
RehAnkle

Date of the award:
August 2022

Project duration:
9 months

Lead Company:
TECHNAID S.L (Spain)

Project Partner(s):

CAIXA MAGICA SOFTWARE S.A (Portugal)

Abstract

This project aims to create a new Smart robot system for lower-limb (joint ankle) neural rehabilitation, including its testing by involving medical end-users (a hospital with their patients and therapists). The solution will consider an innovative structure of robotic exoskeleton based on rigid actuators adapted to the joint ankle, an electronic control system and a user interface inspired by gamification and biofeedback strategies. The solution will have real-time communication with the movements of the patient, incorporating rehabilitation exercises that allow adapting the exoskeleton behavior automatically, achieving personalized therapies.
The starting point of this can be found in the result of the SMARTWEARABLE Project , funded by the H2020 Project DIATOMIC’s Open Call and finalized in November 2019 , conducted by TECHNAID and CSIC (participants of this proposal). Once validated the feasibility of this technology to create robotic-based lower limb neural rehabilitation solutions (TRL5), the current demonstrator aims to scale it up to an operational prototype (TRL7), by involving the participation of a top-notch software developer and a Public Hospital as end-user to validate it with real users.
Thus, this project will be aligned with the DIH-HERO’s addressed Healthcare robotic domain of Rehabilitation Robotics.
Aiming to meet all the call requirements and to maximize the impact of the project, a multidisciplinary and complementary consortium has been stablished:
TECHNAID : a Spanish SME with expertise creating wearable robots for rehabilitation that will lead the project execution, focusing specially in conducting the mechanical and electronic development.
CSIC: the largest Spanish public research institution that, through its the Neural Rehabilitation Group (NRG) of CAJAL INSTITUTE (the oldest neuroscience Research Centre in Spain) , will participate as knowledge institute providing support with the mechanical design.
FHNP : The Research Unit of National Hospital for Paraplegics, the Spanish top public Hospital in spinal cord injuries treatment and neural rehabilitation, that will participate as end-user for the field validation RehAnkle.
CAIXA : A software developer expert Portuguese SME with experience in creating healthcare solutions that will oversee design and development the immersive interface with which the user (patient and therapist) will interact.
Finally, to guarantee the medical relevance of the project, the end-user (Hospital and their patients and therapists) will be involved at all stages of development, considering their perspective as a health expert. In this manner, the consortium will design a test bench to test the feasibility of this new and innovative robotic solution for neurological rehabilitation in healthcare.