WE-COBOT lab - Wearable and collaborative robotics Laboratory
Activities
The topic of wearable and collaborative robotics, which includes in particular wearable exoskeletons and service robots, is earning incredible interest, particularly in applied in the context of rehabilitative and assistive devices to support disability and health facilities, and to the industrial context for working wellness and prevention. These three contexts, although different from each other, share common technological skills and challenges.
WE-COBOT is an inter-departmental lab of Politecnico di Milano at Polo Territoriale di Lecco, which aims to reply with its competences to these technological challenges. Due to the high multidisciplinarity of the topic, WE-COBOT includes several Departments of Politecnico di Milano, and in particular DEIB, DMECC, DESIGN, DIG, DABC Depts.
Politecnico di Milano has important experiences in the field of robotics for rehabilitation and daily life assistance, an experience already strongly shared between different Departments, and in the design of high-tech environments in the health context. WE-COBOT aims to guarantee an evident positioning at the National and European level to favor an appropriate industrial knowledge transfer and also to develop new technologies and services.
Why in Lecco?
The Departments involved in WE-COBOT are already part of the Lombardy Region Cluster “Techonologies for Life enviroments”, coordinated by Univerlecco, an important territorial network that has favored the development of several projects in collaboration with IRCSS Medea – Associazione La Nostra Famiglia, Villa Beretta Rehabilitation Center, INRCA - Istituto Nazionale Riposo E Cura Per Anzian, the UILDM Association, and CNR, with its numerous institutes which are held in the Lecco Campus.
WE-COBOT objectives are:
- User-centered design and development for technological transfer of:
- motorized wearable and collaborative exoskeletons to relief muscoloskeletal work-related disorders;
- rehabilitative solutions exploiting the collaboration between user’s residual ability and robotic assistance, eventually combining also Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES);
- service robots integrated with sensorized objects for elderly assistance and age-related decline monitoring;
- solutions to favor sport activities for people with disabilities in order to promote their social inclusion.
- Development of metrics and sensors to assess rehabilitation efficacy and the wellbeing of the worker and/or fragile person, including ergonomic evaluation of the subject in his/her proper environment.
- Design of control systems based on Machine Learning, Deep Learning and Artificial intelligence for personalization, adaptive/cooperative control of robotic devices, and optimization of user’s intention detection
- Development of architectural solutions that promote the well-being and safety of independent life of elderly and frail people, through domotics and technologies, both robotic or not, for the continuous, transparent, and ecological monitoring of the subject in order to promote early diagnosis and early intervention
- Feasibility studies and business ideas about high-tech solution for heath application (HTA)
Devices
- ARMEO Spring (Hocoma) - www.hocoma.com/solutions/armeo-spring/
- Exoskeleton prototype MUNDUS (upper limb)
- Exoskeleton prototype Bridge/EMPATIA (upper limb)
- Exoskeleton prototype RETRAINER integraed with FES and interactive objects (upper limb)
- Exoskeleton prototype AGREE (upper limb)
- TWIN exoskeleton for walking of Spinal Cord Injured people
- Test benches for control test of compliant/coperative solutions
- 2 stimulators, RehaMove3, Hasomed
- Prototype PEGASO
- Prototype TUTA
- Oscilloscope Tektronix TBS1052B
- Sensorized objects
- Testbench for evaluation of static and dynamic balance of exoskeletons
- Service robot TIAGo
- Trike ICE VTX integrated with FES
- Wearable multi-channel amplifier for EMG (also High density), EEG and kinematics based on inertial sensors
Services for industries
- Support to the use of exoskeletons in the industrial, rehabilitative and assistive context
- Feasibility studies and validation of solutions in specific scenarios, including the quantitative analysis of the work load
- ergonomic evaluation of wearable robotic systems
- Design and development of rehabilitative, assistive and industrial exoskeletons
- Evaluation the length of the trike usicnf a buikf
- Assessment of the use exoskeletons in the industrial, rehabilitative and assistive context
- Design and development of control software for neurorehabilitation and assistive devices
- Planning and support for the implementation of clinical validation studies in compliance with current legislation on medical devices (MDR745/17)
- Design and optimization of service robots for healthcare and ambient-assisting living