Super Light Exoskeleton Helps People with Paraplegia Climb Steps

Thanks to an exoskeleton called TWIICE developed at EPFL, people with paraplegia can stand up, walk, and even climb steps. One of TWIICE's main advantages is that it's light. Because the device weighs under 9 lbs - it consists mainly of composite materials - it easily becomes one with the user. The hip and knee joints are flexed and extended by two electric motors per leg, and the exoskeleton's charge lasts for three hours. The device can bear the entire weight of the user, who still needs crutches to maintain balance and a steady gait. There are buttons in the handles to actuate steps and set the pace: fast walk, slow walk, climb steps, stop, etc. The device is not yet ready for daily use by the general public. But after a year and a half of work, the researchers have come up with a prototype that is both safe and operational enough for testing.

Transcript

00:00:07 twice is a lower limb exoskeleton it enables spinal cord injury patients to stand up and walk again or climb stairs and do activities of the daily living it's made of a structure that works like the bones of the leg and electrical motors that act like muscles and move the structure in order to actually produce a walking pattern the crutches are equipped with the buttons that

00:00:29 enable the user to actually tell the exoskeleton what he wants to do like I want to climb stairs I want to walk fast to walk slow I want to sit down or get up in the beginning it's rather difficult to to drive that exoskeleton because you have to to find your balance and it's you need a lot of strength in the arms but by the time with a lot of workout it becomes as if

00:00:53 you were one body with your with this robot this machine means a lot for me and not only for me but for all desirable people in the future the exoskeletons has to be more intuitive so it means that the exoskeleton needs to be smarter so for example now she trigger every step that she takes but in the future she will start to walk and then the step

00:01:19 will follow one by one without triggering every step so what's special about twice is that we made it with a very special manufacturing technique and that enables the creation of very lightweight and customade exoskeleton that are tailored to different patients morphologies or potentially also pathologies