"All systems go" for a paralyzed person to kick off the World Cup

The Walk Again Project is an international collaboration of more than one hundred scientists, led by Prof. Miguel Nicolelis of Duke University and the International Institute for Neurosciences of Natal, Brazil. Prof. Gordon Cheng, head of the Institute for Cognitive Systems at the Technische Universität München (TUM), is a leading partner.

Eight Brazilian patients, men and women between 20 and 40 years of age who are paralyzed from the waist down, have been training for months to use the exoskeleton. The system works by recording electrical activity in the patient’s brain, recognizing his or her intention – such as to take a step or kick a ball – and translating that to action. It also gives the patient tactile feedback using sensitive artificial skin created by Cheng’s institute.

The feeling of touching the ground

Inspiration for this so-called CellulARSkin technology – as well as for the Walk Again Project itself – came from a 2008 collaboration. As Cheng sums up that complex and widely reported experiment, “Miguel set up a monkey walking on a treadmill in North Carolina, and then I made my humanoid robot walk with the signal in Kyoto.” It was a short step for the researchers to envision a paralyzed person walking with the help of a robotic exoskeleton that could be guided by mental activity alone.

"Our brains are very adaptive in the way that we can extend our embodiment to use tools," Cheng says, "as in driving a car or eating with chopsticks. After the Kyoto experiment, we felt certain that the brain could also liberate a paralyzed person to walk using an external body." It was clear that technical advances would be required to allow a relatively compact, lightweight exoskeleton to be assembled, and that visual feedback would not be enough. A sense of touch would be essential for the patient’s emotional comfort as well as control over the exoskeleton. Thus the challenge was to give a paralyzed person, together with the ability to walk, the feeling of touching the ground.

A versatile solution

Upon joining TUM in 2010, Cheng made it a research priority for his institute to improve on the state of the art in tactile sensing for robotic systems. The result, CellulARSkin, provides a framework for a robust and self-organizing surface sensor network. It can be implemented using standard off-the-shelf hardware and thus will benefit from future improvements in miniaturization, performance, and cost.

The basic unit is a flat, six-sided package of electronic components including a low-power-consumption microprocessor as well as sensors that detect pre-touch proximity, pressure, vibration, temperature, and even movement in three-dimensional space. Any number of these individual “cells” can be networked together in a honeycomb pattern, protected in the current prototype by a rubbery skin of molded elastomer.

"It’s not just the sensor that’s important," Cheng says. "The intelligence of the sensor is even more important." Cooperation among the networked cells, and between the network and a central system, allows CellulARSkin to configure itself for each specific application and to recover automatically from certain kinds of damage. These capabilities offer advantages in enabling smarter, safer interaction of machines with people, and in rapid setup of industrial robots – as is being pursued in the EU-sponsored project "Factory in a Day."

In the Walk Again Project, CellulARSkin is being used in two ways. Integrated with the exoskeleton, for example on the bottoms of the feet, the artificial skin sends signals to tiny motors that vibrate against the patient’s arms. Through training with this kind of indirect sensory feedback, a patient can learn to incorporate the robotic legs and feet into his or her own body schema. CellulARSkin is also being wrapped around parts of the patient’s own body to help the medical team monitor for any signs of distress or discomfort.

A milestone, but “just the beginning”

"I think some people see the World Cup opening as the end," Cheng says, "but it’s really just the beginning. This may be a major milestone, but we have a lot more work to do." He views the event as a public demonstration of what science can do for people. "Also, I see it as a great tribute to all the patients’ hard work and their bravery!"

'Bionic man' goes on show at British museum

A “bionic man” costing one million dollars went on display on Tuesday at Britain’s Science Museum, complete with artificial organs, synthetic blood and robot limbs.

Named Rex, which is short for “Robotic Exoskeleton”, the six foot six inch (two metre) humanoid with its uncannily life-like face was assembled by leading roboticists for a television programme.

Although cheaper than the “Six Million Dollar Man” made famous by the cult 1970s television series starring Lee Majors, the technology is far advanced from the fictional bionics on show back then.

The creation includes key advances in prosthetic technology, as well as an artificial pancreas, kidney, spleen and trachea and a functional blood circulatory system.

Welcoming Rex to the museum in London on Tuesday was Swiss social psychologist Bertolt Meyer, who was himself born without a left hand and has a sophisticated bionic replacement.

"I’ve looked around for new bionic technologies, out of personal interest, for a very long time and I think that until five or six years ago nothing much was happening," Meyer said.

"Then suddenly we are now at a point where we can build a body that is great and beautiful in its own special way."

The museum exhibit, which opens to the public on Thursday, will explore changing perceptions of human identity against the background of rapid progress in bionics—although Rex is not strictly bionic as he does not include living tissue.

Scientists build the One Million Dollar man

Exoskeleton suit gives man chance to walk again

Cutting edge technology has a Darien man taking miraculous steps.

He was paralyzed after he was struck by a car while riding his bike, training for an ironman four years ago.

Mike Loura was beaming as he was walking and showcasing this amazing robotic exoskeleton technology. He was doing something he never imagined he’d be able to do again.

"Ever since the accident all the doctors said you’re never going to walk again," Loura said.

However, the husband and father of two girls is walking again. Thursday was day 15, the day Loura strapped on the wearable robot, a breakthrough technology, but it’s the first time he’s taking steps for others to see.

"Every time I take a step I kinda have to balance myself in a certain position for the machine to know that it’s ready to take the next step," said Loura.

"It has an exoskeleton system with battery powered motor that allows someone who can’t feel and can’t move," said Dr. David Rosenblum, "who’s paralyzed, the ability to go from sit to stand to actually taking steps."

Dr. Rosenblum is the medical director of Rehabilitation at Gaylord Specialty Healthcare, the only center in Connecticut to offer the Ekso Bionics’ Robotic Exoskeleton technology to patients with spinal chord injuries.

"We’re using it as a tool to work on balance to get someone up and moving," said Dr. Rosenblum. "From a wellness perspective to improve their quality of life."

Robot Suit HAL

“Robot Suit HAL" is a cyborg-type robot that can supplement, expand or improve physical capability.

When a person attempts to move, nerve signals are sent from the brain to the muscles via motoneurons, moving the musculoskeletal system as a consequence. At this moment, very weak biosignals can be detected on the surface of the skin. “HAL” catches these signals through a sensor attached on the skin of the wearer. Based on the signals obtained, the power unit is controlled to move the joint in unison with the wearer’s muscle movement, enabling HAL to support the wearer’s daily activities. This is what we call a ‘voluntary control system’ that provides movement interpreting the wearer’s intention from the biosignals in advance of the actual movement. Not only a ‘voluntary control system’ “HAL” has, but also a ‘robotic autonomous control system’ that provides human-like movement based on a robotic system which integrally work together with the ‘autonomous control system’. “HAL” is the world’s first cyborg-type robot controlled by this unique Hybrid System.

"HAL" is expected to be applied in various fields such as rehabilitation support and physical training support in medical field, ADL support for disabled people, heavy labour support at factories, and rescue support at disaster sites, as well as in the entertainment field.

(Source: cyberdyne.jp)

The £90,000 ‘robolegs’ that got me out of my wheelchair: How one woman stood on her own feet nine years after she was paralysed

It is an extraordinary sight. From the waist up, 27-year-old Sophie Morgan is every inch the pretty blonde girl-next-door. But from the waist down, with her legs encased in £90,000 of motorised carbon-fibre, she is RoboCop.

Sophie’s thumb manipulates a joystick built into the armrests of her suit, causing the legs to hiss and whirr into life, before she takes three slow but sure steps. Her face breaks into a broad grin.

Five minutes earlier, Sophie was in her wheelchair. She was left paralysed from the chest down in a car crash nine years ago that shattered her spine. Over the years, Sophie, an aspiring television presenter who appeared in Channel 4’s Paralympics coverage, had come to accept that she would never walk again.

Mr. Abicca, a 17-year-old from San Diego, is essentially wearing a robot. His bionic suit consists of a pair of mechanical braces wrapped around his legs and electric muscles that do much of the work of walking. It is controlled by a computer on his back and a pair of crutches held in his arms that look like futuristic ski poles.

Since an accident involving earth-moving equipment three years ago that damaged his spinal cord, Mr. Abicca has been unable to walk on his own. The suit, made by a company called Ekso Bionics, is an effort to change that.