Federal Robotics Initiative Gives $1M to Make Brain-Controlled Exoskeletons

From: Robotics Trends - 08/29/2012

Scientists at Rice University, the University of Houston (UH) and TIRR Memorial Hermann have received a $1.17 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the President's National Robotics Initiative (NRI).  The combined device will be validated by UTHealth physicians with as many as 40 volunteer patients in the final two years of the four-year R01 award, the oldest research grant offered by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

The multidisciplinary team hopes to develop and validate a noninvasive brain-machine interface (BMI) to a robotic orthotic device that is expected to innovate upper-limb rehabilitation. The new neurotechnology will interpret brainwaves that let a stroke patient willingly operate an exoskeleton that wraps around the arm from the fingertips to the elbow.

 Read the entire article at:

http://www.roboticstrends.com/service_healthcare/article/federal_robotics_initiative_gives_1m_to_make_brain_controlled_exoskeletons/

 

Links:

José Luis Contreras-Vidal

http://www.ee.uh.edu/faculty/contreras-vidal

http://www.sph.umd.edu/KNES/faculty/jcontrerasvidal/research.html

 

Rice's Mechatronics and Haptic Interfaces Lab http://mahilab.rice.edu/

 

Mechanical design of a distal arm exoskeleton for stroke and spinal cord injury rehabilitation.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22275629

 

Stroke patients get helping hand from 'telepathic' robot arm which can respond to your thoughts http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2197537/Stroke-patients-helping-hand-telepathic-robot-arm-respond-thoughts.html