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Robotic rehabilitation exoskeleton HARMONY
HARMONY, a first-of-its-kind two-armed, robotic rehabilitation exoskeleton that could provide a new method of high-quality, data-driven therapy to patients suffering from spinal and neurological injuries.
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Developed by mechanical engineering researcher Ashish Deshpande and a team of graduate students with the Rehabilitation and Neuromuscular (ReNeu) Robotics Lab at the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin (UT-Austin), HARMANY is designed to deliver full upper-body therapy with natural motion and tunable pressure and force, enabling the robot to feel weightless to patients.
HARMONY's software will enable therapists and doctors to deliver precise therapy while tracking and analyzing data. The researchers say HARMONY will help patients recover strength and motor skills after injuries and could also help them recover coordination for daily activities such as eating and dressing.
Deshpande says HARMONY "was specially designed to offer customized therapy for optimal efficacy. Not only does the exoskeleton adjust to patient size, it can also be programmed to be gentle or firm based on the individuals therapy needs."
The research was supported in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation (grant IIS 11-57954).
To learn more, see the UT-Austin news story Texas engineers introduce advanced rehabilitation robot HARMONY. (Date image taken: 2014-2015; date originally posted to NSF Multimedia Gallery: Dec. 28, 2015)
Credit: Cockrell School of Engineering
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