University Of California Team Develops Exoskeleton Legs To Assist Paraplegic Student

Paraplegia which impairs lower half of body and makes a person to totally depend on others will now be possible to overcome. A team headed by Prof. Homayoon Kazerooni, Dept. of Mechanical engineering University of California has developed an exoskeleton to help paraplegic people to walk easily. The exoskeleton developed by Prof. Kazerooni and his team of students contains sensors, actuators and small motors which help in physical movement of paraplegic student, Austin Whitney.

It was a life changing incident for Austin Whitney who suffered a car accident when he was just 18 years old. The accident severed his spinal cord and left him paraplegic. He is 22 years old now. Even after the incident he was determined to finish his undergraduate studies. He joined college soon after being discharged from hospital. His determination made Prof. Kazerooni to help him in standing on his feet till the graduation day ceremony. Austin, will now be able to finish his chores decently due to this mechanical aid easily.

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The team to design this included PhD students Michael McKinley, Jason Reid, Wayne Tung and Minerva Pillai, who worked under Prof. Kazerooni to help Austin stand on his legs again. The exoskeleton which they designed uses a battery attached at the back. It cannot help the patient to move backwards or climb a stair-case though but at least helps him to perform basic actions like sitting, standing, and walking in forward direction. The motors, sensors and the overall structure used in this design are intentionally kept light weight. They are also designed to consume minimum power so that those components would not be a burden on battery and the machine will operate smoothly. The exoskeleton is made from cheap materials so that it should be affordable to many. Other variants are very costly above $10000 and are not a very good choice for all.

Kazerooni has a deep interest in exoskeletons and related robotics. He feels a great could be achieved by using such technologies in medical field too. Homayoon kazerooni is a co-founder of Berkeley Bionics which successfully launched exoskeleton for such paraplegics called ‘e-legs’. He expressed that it was a tough job to keep design simple however they achieved it. The battery can be charged for an operation of 4-8 hours. Even though the machine helps you to move around, still the balance has to be maintained by the user. The exoskeleton is still in initial stages but the team as a whole feels that it is a big achievement in cheap exoskeleton devices.

This is not the first project which Kazerooni did. He is in this field of ‘exoskeletons’ for over a decade now. The first one which he took was the one in which he had to design something which will make user carry heavy loads. It was to minimize human effort, which was funded by ‘Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’.

But above everything else, Austin was very happy. He could receive his diploma while standing on his two legs. If education helps someone to stand on his/her legs, then it was true for Austin. The satisfaction of achieving something this good is I think unparalleled.

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