Specialists of Moscow Polytech jointly with the company “Midday. 21st century” are working on the creation of the exoskeleton for diagnosing and treating diseases of the musculoskeletal system. First, it is supposed to be used for the work with children.
The “Izvestya” Publishing House is telling about the development.
With the help of the invention, one will be able to assess to which extent the patient’s gait corresponds to a healthy ideal, to measure the objective parameters characterizing his individual manner of walking, as well as to teach a person to walk in a right way. The engineers want to release their invention to the market already in 2024.
“According to preliminary calculations, our exoskeletons will cost at least three times less than those analogues existing in the market,” - said Ilya Taratonov, head of the research team and the Master’s degree program “Robotic Unmanned Systems and Ergonomics” at Moscow Polytech.
The project on creation of an exoskeleton includes several stages. At first, the device will be used exclusively for diagnostics. The scientists will put a metal skeleton frame with multiple sensors installed on healthy people and, using their example, will form the correct motions database. This will allow specialists to obtain a universal portrait of a person’s ideal gait. The engineers will then identify which sensor parameters (electrical activity of muscles, temperature, angle of inclination, etc.) used in the device correspond to the correct gait.
The specialists of Moscow Polytech are striving to create the device that will be able to monitor the gait according to the objective parameters. Doctors will be able to apply it in the same manner as a cardiologist uses a cardiogram. With the help of the skeleton, it will be possible to understand, for example, that a person puts his foot out far, or, on the contrary, puts it back.
As the scientists said, the laws of kinematics (the section of mechanics describing motion) say that the gait of people coincides only in 70 %, and the rest 30% are determined by an individual manner. The developers try to exactly identify the correlation between the common basis and personal peculiarities, in order the skeleton might adapt itself to every user, explained the specialists.
According to the skeleton developers, many even healthy people are walking all the life incorrectly. The harm caused by this until a certain moment is compensated by the vital forces of the body. However, eventually such a gait leads to joints diseases, headaches, diseases of the cardiovascular system and other complications. The exoskeleton will help to reveal gait disorders in such cases.
At the next stage, the skeleton is used to record gait peculiarities of children with cerebral palsy and to make their “portraits” with all numerical parameters that sensors record. Based on this data, the doctor will be able to develop the program of therapeutic exercises and to monitor its effectiveness. At the disposal of a doctor, there will be all statistics relevant to each patient, his individual characteristics and other necessary information. Within 15 minutes of a patient’s visit the attending doctor will obtain specific numbers, based on which he will be able to judge whether there is progress in treatment or it is worth changing, they told us at Moscow Polytech.
As soon as the diagnostics function of the device has been worked out, the engineers will get down to its adjustment for correction of a gait. For this purpose, the skeleton design incorporates motors. In case a patient walks incorrectly, the motors will correct his movements. Eventually, the task of a user will be to ensure that the motors do not interfere with him when walking. This will be happening intuitively, so special patient training is not required.
The peculiarity of working with children is that they grow up quickly; therefore, the equipment should grow in size together with them. While keeping only hardware and software part and electronics, the structure allows changing separate parts of the skeleton and by doing so adjust its height. According to the developers, within 24 hours, with the help of a 3D-Printer, they will able to print out a skeleton for any child having the height of up to 1,5 meters.
“We form a unified exoskeleton complex, allowing to change sizes with the growth of our small patient and to adapt treatment to him,”- said Ilya Taratonov.
Diagnostics with the help of the device will take no more than 15 minutes. It will be conducted with the use of a special treadmill that simulates any obstacles. In addition, during treatment a child may stay inside the device as long as necessary. For the better contact with kids, the engineers are intending to design it in the style of The "Iron Man" costume or other heroes well known to the child.
However, according to specialists of the company Muscles.AI, which is engaged in the development of a special costume for the analysis of motions and rehabilitation of the patients with diseases of the musculoskeletal system, the characteristics of exoskeletons design, in principle, do not allow using these devices for diagnostics.
“The exoskeleton imposes restrictions on movements and changes their mechanics. Meaning, that specialists diagnose not the motions of a person, but the motions of the exoskeleton. If the development allows to move freely, then this is not an exoskeleton anymore, and the wearable technology - a hardware and software complex of the type we are doing,” - said technical director of the company Vitaly Ulybin.
The exoskeleton developed by the specialists from Moscow Polytech will be efficient for the work with adult patients, who have suffered injuries, or elder children, patients with cerebral palsy, - a specialist in child rehabilitation Natalia Pykhtina is sure.
“Unfortunately, you can't put an exoskeleton on the youngest patients aged about a year, therefore we have to make exercises with them manually,” - said Natalia Pykhtina.
However, as the patients are getting older and their weight increases, an exoskeleton may significantly ease the work of rehabilitologist, concluded the specialist.
