The Great Revolt - the end of wheelchairs?

Someone who has never used a wheelchair may think that there is little difference between it and an exoskeleton, or even that it is the wheelchair that provides mobility, faster and more efficient movement. However, experts and the disabled themselves emphasize that it is very important for the paralyzed not only to move around, but also to get up from the wheelchair and assume an upright position.

June 12, 2014, shortly before 17 pm local time at the Arena Corinthians in São Paulo, the young Brazilian instead of disabled carriagewhere he usually walks, he entered the field with his feet and made his first pass in the World Cup. He was wearing a mind-controlled exoskeleton (1). 

1. The first ball kick at the World Cup in Brazil

The presented structure was the result of many years of work by an international team of scientists focused on the Go Again project. Alone exoskeleton Made in France. The work was coordinated by Gordon Cheng of the Technical University of Munich, and the technology for reading brain waves was developed mainly in the United States, in the same place at Duke University.

This was the first mass presentation of mind control in mechanical devices. Prior to this, exoskeletons were presented at conferences or filmed in laboratories, and the recordings were most often found on the Internet.

exoskeleton was built by Dr. Miguel Nicolelis and a team of 156 scientists. Its official name is BRA-Santos-Dumont, after Albert Santos-Dumont, a Brazilian pioneer. In addition, thanks to the feedback, the patient must “feel” what he is doing through the systems of electronic sensors located in the equipment.

Enter history with your own feet

The story of 32-year-old Claire Lomas (2) shows that exoskeleton it can open the way for a disabled person to a new life. In 2012, a British girl, paralyzed from the waist down, became famous after completing the London Marathon. It took her seventeen days, but she did it! The feat was made possible thanks to the Israeli skeleton ReWalk.

2. Claire Lomas wearing the ReWalk exoskeleton

Ms. Claire's achievement has been named one of the greatest technological events of 2012. The following year, she started a new race with her weaknesses. This time, she decided to ride 400 miles or over 600 km on a hand-operated bike.

Along the way, she tried to visit as many cities as possible. During the layovers, she founded ReWalk and visited schools and various institutions, speaking about herself and raising funds to help people with spinal injuries.

Exoskeletons until replaced wheelchairs. For example, they are too slow for a paralyzed person to cross the road safely. However, these structures have only recently been tested, and they can already bring many benefits.

In addition to the ability to overcome barriers and psychological comfort, the skeleton gives the wheelchair user a chance for active rehabilitation. The upright position strengthens the heart, muscles, circulation and other parts of the body weakened by daily sitting.

Skeleton with joystick

Berkeley Bionics, known for its HULC military exoskeleton project, proposed five years ago exoskeleton for people with disabilities is called - eLEGS (3). It is an easy to use design designed for paralyzed people. It weighs 20 kg and allows you to walk at speeds up to 3,2 km/h. for six o'clock.

The device has been designed so that a wheelchair-bound user can put it on and be on their way in just a few minutes. They are worn on clothes and shoes, fastened with Velcro and buckles, similar to those used in backpacks.

Management is carried out using gestures interpreted Flight controller of the exoskeleton. Walking is done using crutches to help you keep your balance. ReWalk and similar American eLEGS are relatively light. It must be admitted that they do not provide complete stability, hence the mentioned need for reliance on crutches. The New Zealand company REX Bionics has taken a different path.

4. Rex Bionics University of Applied Sciences

The REX she built weighs a whopping 38kg but is very stable (4). He can cope with even a large deviation from the vertical and standing on one leg. It is also handled differently. Instead of balancing the body, the user uses a small joystick. The robotic exoskeleton, or REX for short, took over four years to develop and was first demonstrated on July 14, 2010.

It is based on the idea of ​​an exoskeleton and consists of a pair of robotic legs that allow you to stand up, walk, move sideways, turn, lean and finally walk. This offer is for people who use traditional products on a daily basis. disabled carriage.

The device has received all the necessary local standards and was created taking into account the suggestions of a number of rehabilitation specialists. Learning to walk with robotic legs takes two weeks. The manufacturer provides training at the REX Center in Auckland, New Zealand.

The brain comes into play

Recently, University of Houston engineer José Contreras-Vidal integrated a BCI brain interface into a New Zealand exoskeleton. So instead of a stick, REX can also be controlled by the user's mind. And, of course, this is not the only type of exoskeleton that allows it to be "controlled by the brain."

A group of Korean and German scientists have developed a valid exoskeleton control system movements of the lower extremities using a brain interface based on an electroencephalographic device and LEDs.

Information about this solution - extremely promising from the point of view of, for example, wheelchair users - appeared a few months ago in the specialized journal "Journal of Neural Engineering".

The system allows you to move forward, turn left and right, and stay steady in place. The user puts typical EEG "headphones" on their head and sends the appropriate pulses while focusing and looking at an array of five LEDs.

Each LED flashes at a specific frequency, and the person using the exoskeleton focuses on the selected LED at a specific frequency, which results in a corresponding EEG reading of brain impulses.

As you might guess, this system requires some preparation, but, as the developers assure, it effectively captures the necessary impulses from all the brain noise. It usually took the test subjects about five minutes to learn how to effectively control the exoskeleton that moves their legs.

Except exoskeletons.

Exoskeletons instead wheelchairs - this technology did not really flourish, and even more new concepts are emerging. If it is possible to control inert mechanical elements with the mind exoskeletonthen why not use an interface like BCI for the inert muscles of a paralyzed person?

5. A paralyzed person walks with a BCI without an exoskeleton.

This solution was described at the end of September 2015 in the journal NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation Specialists from the University of California at Irvine, led by Dr. An Do, equipped a 26-year-old paralyzed man for five years with an EEG pilot. on his head and into electrodes that pick up electrical impulses in the muscles surrounding his immobilized knees (5).

Before he could use his legs again after years of immobility, he apparently had to go through the usual training for people using BCI interfaces. He studied in virtual reality. He also had to strengthen his leg muscles to support the weight of his body.

He managed to walk 3,66 meters with a walker, thanks to which he kept his balance and transferred some of his body weight. No matter how surprising and paradoxical it may sound - he gained control over his limbs!

According to the scientists who conducted these experiments, this technique, together with mechanical assistance and prosthetics, can return a significant part of the mobility to the disabled and even paralyzed people and provide more psychological satisfaction than exoskeletons. Either way, a great wagon revolt seems imminent.