This robot may look like something taken straight from a Transformers movie, but it actually has a significant real-life application. It could provide a unique data-driven therapy method for stroke victims and people with spinal and neurological injuries.
The robotic rehabilitation exoskeleton, dubbed HARMONY, offers upper-body therapy and can be customized to each patient. The developers say it essentially feels weightless to users thanks to the ability to tune its pressure and force. They hope HARMONY will help treat injured patients who want to recover their motor skills and strength, potentially helping people re-learn coordination skills required to eat and dress themselves, for instance.
Tracking and analyzing data
“HARMONY is the culmination of years of research and development in the ReNeu Robotics Lab,” said Ashish Deshpande, an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. “It was specially designed to offer customized therapy for optimal efficacy. Not only does pinalthe exoskeleton adjust to patient size, it can also be programmed to be gentle or firm based on the individual’s therapy needs.”
The robot’s software will also assist healthcare practitioners by allowing them to track and analyze data related to the patient. HARMONY boasts sensors that collect data at approximately 2,000 times per second. Doctors and physical therapists were crucial in the development of the robot, helping the engineers design an authentic shoulder mechanism for the device.
Different from other exoskeleton robots
So what makes HARMONY different from other exoskeleton robots? The researchers say their device is one of the first to accommodate the entire upper body (similar existing technologies tend to focus on one arm only). HARMONY features more than 10 axes and connects to patients at three points on each side of the body.
The project is a culmination of at least four years; the first prototype was built back in 2011 and the initial software was developed in collaboration with Meka Robotics two years later. The team is currently making changes to the software and planning a trial period for this summer. It will be conducted in June with 20 to 30 healthy subjects.
For more information, visit the UT Austin website.