Novosibirsk State Technical University NETI entered the program of the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia "Priority 2030". The strategic goal of NSTU NETI is to achieve leadership and technological superiority in Siberia and Russia in three priority areas, one of them being "New engineering solutions and artificial intelligence for biomedicine".
One of the developments that Alexey Tsygulin's team is working on is a traction table with pneumatic actuators. The table is designed to stretch the human spine.
"Over time, the spine shrinks, even if there is no atypical influence. If there is a sports load or some kind of injury, then the spine can be compressed unevenly as well. Moreover, the problem becomes more manifested with age. That is, the older a person is, the more difficult the problems are. What we offer is a kind of flat, bed-like structure where a person is attached by the limbs and stretched," says Alexey Tsygulin.
According to him, the peculiarity of the development is the ability to control the load vector. the computer starts a program that does not stretch the body by a few centimeters but applies an accurately measured effort. This makes a person resist and choose a comfortable position.
"We provide this by a pneumatic drive, that is a pneumatic spring configured by a computer. The whole process is controlled by the program. We can select the vectors of effort and their changes in an accurate and dosed manner. If a person has a backache, in 4-5 sessions this problem goes away. The development has no direct analogs. Now we have a working demonstration device. Our task is to make its use convenient; we also need to include medical techniques. Ideally, we need to conduct clinical trials," Tsygulin added.
Another development of Alexey Tsigulin's team is a rehabilitation device for patients after stroke and spinal injuries.
"We propose to make some kind of inverted exoskeleton. That is, we fix a person in a device, which is functionally a back and legs. And then the device performs movements characteristic of walking. In this case, the recovery is claimed to be twice as fast. This is also a well-known medical practice. We can simulate walking quite accurately, unlike foreign analogs, where a person's legs are controlled by assistants," says the head of the development.
The development of NSTU NETI scientists evenly distributes the load on the joints and muscles of the patient, which doubles the recovery rate.
"We have already developed a preliminary design, calculated the forces, trajectories of movement, and purchased electric drives. In 2022, we will start designing specific parts ordering or manufacturing them. Perhaps in the future, we will start prototyping. This is important because the kinetic scheme of the device is non-trivial. By the summer, we are to assemble a moving model," says Alexey Tsygulin.
According to him, the federal program "Priority 2030" will allow the team to attract partners and start solving problems with the musculoskeletal system.
"We have already been included in the program, given a laboratory, purchased electric drives, established interaction with the Technocenter to manufacture some elements, and purchased software. The project is moving, there are few results yet, but the work is being carried out quite actively. Now we are looking for medical partners. There is a demand for such developments, the price of the devices is very high. We want to make our devices significantly cheaper," said the head of development.