Scientists of Novosibirsk State Technical University NETI are creating a high-tech exoskeleton that will help in the rehabilitation of people after a stroke (video). The head of the development is Alexey Tsygulin, Associate Professor, the Department of Design of Technological Machines and the Department of Theoretical and Applied Computer Science.
"The main goal of the project is the rehabilitation of people who have suffered a stroke and those who have been immobilized for a long time, that is, when the neural connections of the brain are disrupted. We have already collected the first data among students and teachers and recorded their movements on stereo cameras. Then, by the method of technical vision, their movement patterns were restored when walking. The number of subjects was about fifty people. All this was done to restore the trajectory of people's movement when walking and then learn how to make parametric models, that is, we not only set the movement process itself but also indicate with what step width you should walk, the height of the leg lift when walking, and so on. All this is a certain set of parameters, which can vary your gait. There are no such data in the public domain, and they are extremely necessary for our development, so we decided to make our own collection of parameters," said Alexey Tsygulin.
According to him, the developers of the exoskeleton are now preparing data for calculating walking trajectories, so that they can then be loaded directly into the walking device.
"We are also designing the "hardware" full-size part of the device and continue to purchase additional materials and components. During the year, we plan to assemble the entire apparatus, then we are to study movements: we will put people on a walking device, record their cardiogram and a certain set of parameters, thanks to which we will monitor the body's reaction to the activity of the device. The most important thing is to monitor the behavior of nervous responses, so we will try recording them in real time," added Alexey Tsygulin.