prof.dr.ir. M. Sartori (Massimo)

INTERACT: Modelling the neuromusculoskeletal system across spatiotemporal scales for a new paradigm of humanmachine motor interaction

INTERACT

Ieder jaar worden er miljoenen mensen door neurologisch letsel zoals een beroerte of ruggenmergletsel uitgeschakeld. Voor deze personen is herstel nog niet optimaal. De impact van de neurorevalidatiemachines van vandaag de dag wordt belemmerd door een beperkte kennis van hun fysieke interactie met het menselijk lichaam. Motorisch herstel kan alleen worden bereikt als positieve neuromusculaire aanpassingen gedurende een langere tijd worden gestuurd. Als we dergelijke aanpassing zouden kunnen voorspellen en beheersen om in de toekomst een positieve verandering teweeg te brengen, zou een nieuw tijdperk in revalidatie-robotica beginnen. INTERACT zal deze uitdaging aangaan door elektrische stimulatie van het ruggenmerg en de robot- exoskeletten te combineren met een nieuwe klasse van voorspellende multischaal modellen van het neuromusculaire systeem. Hierdoor kunnen robots autonoom de elektro-mechanische stimuli ontdekken die nodig zijn om de motorische functie in de loop van de tijd te herstellen. INTERACT zal fundamentele vragen over bewegingsneuromechanica via nieuwe beginselen van interactie tussen mens en machine beantwoorden, en heeft hiermee een brede impact op bio-engineering en robotica.

ROBOREACTOR: Robotic bioreactors for the longitudinal control of restorative remodelling in the human skeletal muscle

SimBionics

Neuromechanical Simulation and Sensory Feedback for the Control of Bionic Legs

SOPHIA

Socio-physical Interaction Skills for Cooperative Human-Robot Systems in Agile Production

S.W.A.G.: Soft wearable assistive garments for human empowerment

Horizon Europe (CL4-Digital Emerging): Soft wearable assistive garments for human empowerment

Soft robotics has become one of the fastest growing fields over the last decade, and the development of technologies related to the associated modelling, sensing, actuation and control challenges has flourished as part of the field’s impetus. Soft robots have been demonstrated in diverse applications such as wearable devices, mobile or locomotive robots, as well as soft manipulators. Soft lower extremity exoskeletons ( “soft wearable robotics (SWRs)) are one of the most challenging research topics, and require multidisciplinary approaches involving diverse fields such as neuroscience, biomechanics, robot control, ergonomics and other fields. SWAG aims to explore a fundamentally new approach to engineering soft structures that omit fully rigid materials for inflatable ones made from high-strength fabrics and films when manufacturing human-assistive exoskeletal devices that target strainprone segments of the human body (i.e. lower body and core). Such soft wearable adaptive garments with actuation capabilities offer higher variable stiffness and force-to-weight ratios compared to other existing methods, and simultaneously entirely conform to each joint’s intricate kinematics. Because of this, new design approaches can be used as building blocks to realise complete assistance for multi-degree-of-freedom joints, such as the ankle or hip, by adapting flexible and conforming motions achieved by continuum robot designs. SWAG’s advances will demonstrated in 4 different application scenarios. The project brings together 13 partners from 5 EU countries and the UK. The partners consist of an interdisciplinary combination of leading academics with very strong track records in their respective fields. They are supported by RTOs with demonstrated capabilities of developing and validating application-driven solutions, as well as two commercial partners aiming to lead the exploitation of SWAG’s outcomes.

SMARTSENS

ERC Proof of Concept Grant: Smart wear for sensing the neuromusculoskeletal system during human movement in vivo

Neurological injuries such as stroke or spinal cord injury, leave 5 million people disabled worldwide annually, drastically impairing individuals' ability to move independently. The main element hampering efficacy of current neuro-rehabilitation procedures is the inability of sensing the activity of neural cells involved in the control of movement, along with the movement-generating mechanical force produced by innervated muscle-tendon units, in the intact moving human in vivo. Current technologies for sensing the neuromusculoskeletal system rely on expensive, large, and bulky sensing devices that can only be used in the highly controlled settings of research laboratories. Therefore, a wearable, rapid-to-wear system that could track function in a person’s motor neuron activity along with associated function in muscle, tendon and joint function would revolutionise current neuro-rehabilitation paradigms. SMARTSENS proposes a fully wearable, non-invasive solution to monitor a range of clinically relevant neuromuscular parameters, which currently could only be extracted in constrained laboratory settings via lengthy procedures. SMARTSENS enables measuring such information during daily life activities using a sensorised smart wear that is unobstructive and rapid to wear. This will enable continuous monitoring of the human neuromusculoskeletal system, which will disrupt current movement-measuring and diagnostic systems, by enabling causal understanding of the activity of neural and musculoskeletal structures in vivo at a resolution not considered before.