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

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

INTERACT

Neurological injuries such as stroke or spinal cord injury leave millions of people disabled worldwide every year. However, for these individuals recovery is often suboptimal. The impact of current neuro-rehabilitation machines is hampered by limited knowledge of their physical interaction with the human body. Motor recovery requires positive neuro-muscular adaptation to be steered over time. If we could predict such adaptation and control it, to induce a positive change in the future, then a new era in rehabilitation robotics would begin. INTERACT will address this challenge by combining spinal cord electrical-stimulation and robotic exoskeletons with a new class of predictive multi-scale models of the neuromuscular system. This will enable robots to autonomously discover the electro-mechanical stimuli needed for repairing motor function over time. INTERACT will answer fundamental questions in movement neuromechanics via novel principles of human-machine interaction, with broad impact on bioengineering and robotics.

SimBionics

Neuromechanical Simulation and Sensory Feedback for the Control of Bionic Legs

Robotic lower limb prostheses, or bionic legs, have underwent tremendous mechatronic advances in the past decade. However, current prosthesis control interfaces are still sub-optimal leading to inefficient walking. To address this limit, there is need for highly trained professionals that work at the intersection of academic research, clinical assessment and market translation. However, current doctoral training programs do not equip candidates with the complex skillset required to develop prosthetic limbs. SimBionics will establish a comprehensive training program that will equip Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) with the engineering, clinical and entrepreneurial skills required to bring an idea into the market. SimBionics brings together two internationally recognized academic centers, one clinical center and one of the world leading companies in prosthetics. Four ESRs will be trained to develop a radically new control interface that integrates, for the first time, neuromechanical modeling and artificial sensory feedback. This will enable bionic legs to mimic the mechanics of their biological counterparts, so that amputees perceive the prosthesis as an extension of their own body. ESR training will cover all phases of development; from technology conceptualization to translation into a successful product. ESRs will learn to investigate user and stakeholder requirements. They will learn regulatory aspects for medical products, reimbursement mechanisms, intellectual property, and elements that can block successful development. ESRs will thus receive a tailored career development plan including skills acquisition, project/teamwork management, and open science/gender aspects. Outreach activities will be realized to improve public understanding of SimBionics’ socio-economical potentials and clinical benefits. SimBionics will enhance ESRs’ career perspectives and establish a reference for technology development training program.

ExoAid: 'PERSPECTIEF' Programme in Wearable Robotics

The programme 'wearable robotics' is led by UT Professor Herman van der Kooij. This is a national multi-centric project involving Dutch universities and European companies. I am co-responsible for one of the 8 sub-projects constituting the global initiative. The project aims at the development of so-called Exo-Aids: soft, comfortable robot technology supporting smooth and versatile movements. Patients with a damaged spinal cord or loss of muscle power, can come out of their wheelchair and stand up without needing crutches. Another application of wearable robots is preventing job-related injuries, like the lower back pain people are suffering from when doing heavy work.

Electromyography-driven musculoskeletal modelling for biomimetic myoelectric control of prostheses with variable stiffness actuators

Upper limb loss affects 94.000 individuals in Europe. Advanced treatments rely on myoelectric prostheses controlled by amputees’ electromyograms or EMG. Despite expected benefits, today's schemes provide limited re-gain of functionality and lack of bio-mimesis, i.e. they use: (1) direct mapping between EMG and prosthesis joint angle, disregarding underlying neuromusculoskeletal processes, and failing to generalize to unseen conditions (robustness lack), (2) stiff actuators not mimicking biological compliant joints, preventing natural motion (functionality lack). MIMICS proposes a biomimetic paradigm: (1) a modelling formulation that simulates amputee’s phantom limb musculoskeletal dynamics as controlled by EMGs, and (2) prostheses with variable stiffness “soft” actuators. This opens to next-generation “soft” prostheses that can mimic biological limb functionality and robustness; a priority of current European policies and technology roadmaps, with estimated initial markets for functional myoelectric prostheses of €1 billion. MIMICS combines required interdisciplinary skills on soft actuation (host), neuromusculoskeletal modelling (fellow), and clinical bionic reconstruction (secondment). The career development plan is tailored on fellow’s needs: new skills acquisition (soft actuation/clinical prosthetics), project/teamwork management, open science/gender aspects care, ERC grant writing support. The action transfers fellow’s pre-acquired knowledge to the host and opens cooperation with secondment institute, thus increasing host’s visibility in myoelectric control and clinical prosthetics. The secondment expands MIMICS outcomes to boarder clinical perspectives and boosts knowledge transfer among organizations. Outreach activities plan to improve public understanding of MIMICS achievements, socio-economical potentials and clinical benefits. This all is set to improve fellow’s career prospects and form a European network of excellence in neurorehabilitation technologies

H2R: Integrative Approach for the Emergence of Human-like Locomotion

The major drawbacks of existing walking bipeds are related to stability, energy consumption, and robustness to unknown disturbances. In healthy humans, walking emerges naturally from a hierarchical organization and combination of motor control mechanisms. The result of this process is a highly efficient, stable and robust gait. The goal of H2R project is to demonstrate human-like gait and posture in a controlled compliant biped robot as a result of a combination of the most relevant motor control and cognitive mechanisms found in humans. In order to achieve this goal, we will adopt a threefold process: 1. Investigating the human behavior in order to formalize the most crucial biomechanical and neuromotor principles of walking and standing. For more information visit the section Studying humans 2. Testing the formalized biological concepts, by their integration into currently existing robotic platforms. At the same time, we will develop a new biped (namely H2R biped), by iteratively including the components and methods successfully tested. For more information, visit the section Developing robots 3. Giving birth to an internationally validated benchmarking scheme to test the human-like properties of robotic bipeds. This process will strongly rely on worldwide participation of other research groups, through workshops, seminars, and networking activities. For more information, visit the section Benchmarking

INOPRO: Intelligent Orthotics and Prosthetics for Enhanced Human-Machine Interaction (INOPRO)

https://foerderportal.bund.de/foekat/jsp/SucheAction.do?actionMode=view&fkz=13N14909

SOPHIA

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

Collaborative robotics has established itself as a major force in pushing forward highly adaptive and flexible production paradigms in European large and small-medium enterprises. It is contributing to the sustainability and enhancement of Europe’s efficient and competitive manufacturing, to reshoring production, and to economic growth. However, still today the potential of collaborative technologies is largely underexploited. Indeed, collaborative robots are most often designed to coexist and to safely share a working space with humans. They are rarely thought to enter in direct socio-physical contact with humans to perceive, understand, and react to their distress or needs, and to enable them to work more productively and efficiently through better ergonomics. SOPHIA responds to this need by developing a new generation of socially cooperative human-robot systems in agile production. Its modular core technologies will enable dynamic state monitoring of the human-robot pair and anticipatory robot behaviours to: (1) improve human ergonomics, trust in automation, and productivity in manufacturing environments, and (2) achieve a reconfigurable, flexible, and resource-efficient production. By advancing the decisional autonomy and interaction ability of its innovative collaborative systems, SOPHIA will contribute to the reduction of work-related musculoskeletal disorders, the single largest category of work-related injuries and responsible for 30% of all workers’ compensation costs. SOPHIA’s societal relevance and the research groups’ experience in acceptability and standardization aspects of its core technologies will ensure their comfort-of-use by industrial workers, and the underlying design compliance to standards, thus strengthening the competitiveness in European manufacturing. We will illustrate and verify SOPHIA usability through the exploration of three real-world use-cases encouraging potential customers to integrate our core technologies in their workflow.