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.

项目概要/摘要 NJIT 及其研究和临床合作者强烈需要更深入地了解 外骨骼辅助运动（EAL）期间的人机交互。为了满足这一需求，该提案 请求资金购买自平衡、免提下肢外骨骼并测试其功效 促进神经系统疾病患者功能独立的装置。本次活动的长远目标 工作的目的是使机器人外骨骼能够无缝集成，供家庭和社区使用，恢复移动性 患有神经系统疾病的人的生活质量与身体健全的同龄人相当。 尽管机器人外骨骼具有巨大潜力，但现有设备仍无法安全恢复 神经系统疾病患者的活动能力。这在很大程度上是因为机器人外骨骼 康复治疗相对较新，商业设备已获得美国食品和药物管理局 (FDA) 的认证 过去七年的批准（2014 年的 ReWalk、2016 年的 Indego 和 Ekso）。对机器人的需求不断增长 外骨骼暴露了安全和持续使用的两个关键障碍：1）人类与机器人的界限 EAL 期间的表现尚不清楚，因为受控实验室设置下的经验数据 不存在或研究界无法获得； 2) 实施起来非常困难且昂贵 进行必要的实验，以系统地表征 EAL 期间的人机性能。在 此外，目前在美国使用的所有三种 FDA 批准的设备都需要手持拐杖或 沃克。这排除了一部分患有神经系统疾病的人群，他们没有足够的控制能力或 他们手臂上的力量。拐杖/助行器还限制了用户可以从事的活动的强度和范围 在机器人外骨骼中，限制此类辅助设备的使用以重新获得功能独立性 和生活质量。 自平衡、免提外骨骼的获得将极大地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涉及面广、 包括在实验室环境中进行受控实验，以获得有关人类机器人的基础知识 外骨骼中的交互，开发 EAL 的特定主题虚拟模拟器，了解 EAL 旨在改善患者群体的步态特征和功能独立性，并开发虚拟 用于培训弱势群体使用外骨骼的现实平台。总的来说，这些项目将提供 加速机器人外骨骼集成急需的经验数据和技术发展 适合家庭和社区使用。