In our lab we are developing research on low-cost exoskeletons, devices capable of helping people with motor disabilities in everyday life.
This technology is aimed at patients suffering from muscle weakness (eg muscular dystrophy) and allows – through non-invasive electrodes – to collect the nerve signal and estimate the patient’s movement in anticipation.
Exoskeletons currently on the market have prohibitive costs to be adopted in the home environment. In order to to reduce costs, we are therefore working on:
• an elastic support that allows the application of small size and low cost motors;
• a flexible mechanical structure that allows to estimate the interaction forces through its own deformation.
FORECAST research is developed within the EUROBENCH European Project.