A design of a new exoskeleton was presented by TU Delft's student team Project MARCH on Friday 24 March. The exoskeleton gives patients with spinal cord injury back their mobility and helps carry out daily activities. Martin van Rijn, outgoing State Secretary for Health, Welfare and Sport, attended the presentation.
An exoskeleton is a frame worn on the outside of the body. The frame supports the human body and was developed by Project MARCH to give back full mobility to patients who have paralysed legs due to an illness or accident. Not only does it allow patients to regain control over where they want to go and stand, but also enables them to communicate with friends and family at eye level. In addition, the team argues that an exoskeleton can significantly improve patients' health. For example, an exoskeleton can reduce the risk of thrombosis, strengthen bones, promote bowel function, reduce bedsores, strengthen muscles and improve patient fitness. Finally, it also reduces dependence on healthcare providers and insurers.
Major benefits
Among other things, patients with spinal cord injury can benefit from an exoskeleton. The frame helps them walk again. "This is very important because it increases the user's freedom of movement and improves social contacts with, for example, family, friends and colleagues because they can communicate with each other at eye level again. Using an exoskeleton has great benefits for the user's physical and mental condition. We are therefore enormously proud to have presented the new design to the outside world on 24 March," says Donald Dingemanse, team manager of Project MARCH.
Project MARCH is a team made up of TU Delft students. Paraplegic patient Ruben de Sain is also part of the team. In December 2015, de Sain was the first paraplegic patient to be fitted with an exoskeleton in the Netherlands. With the help of this suit, developed by the Sint Maartenskliniek, De Sain was able to walk again after 10 years. De Sain therefore launched a crowdfunding campaign in late 2015 through which he successfully raised the 85,000 euros needed to purchase the exoskeleton. The Saint Maartens Clinic has been a sponsor of Project MARCH since June 2016.
MARCH II
So now De Sain is involved in Project MARCH. This team previously realised the exoskeleton MARCH I. Within TU Delft, every year a group of students works full-time for a year to improve the technology behind the exoskeleton. In September 2016, work began on the design of an entirely new model: MARCH II. This exoskeleton has now been presented.
MARCH II differs from MARCH I in two important ways, including a significant change in the way force is transferred from the motor to the joint - allowing the patient to stand up and walk. In addition, the feedback system has been revamped. This system ensures that the patient knows where his legs are in the exoskeleton. This feedback is necessary, as the patient cannot feel where his legs are by himself due to his spinal cord injury.
Cybathlon
The team behind Project MARCH set itself the goal of developing an exoskeleton that would allow people with spinal cord injury to complete the six parts of the Cybathlon in 10 minutes. A Cybathlon is a competition aimed at bionic para-athletes in which teams compete with their exoskeletons to successfully complete the six parts of the race. These six parts are designed to imitate everyday situations. TU Delft reports that there are plans to organise a Cybathlon in the Netherlands in October 2017. The TU Delft student team wants to participate in this competition and complete the six parts here within 10 minutes. Currently, no exoskeleton is available that is capable of doing this.
You can watch the presentation of Project MARCH II's design in the video below. More information about Project MARCH can be found at projectmarch.nl.
By: Wouter Hoeffnagel
