SBIR Phase I: Low Cost Fabric Exoskeleton to Improve Mobility of Elderly Individuals

The broader impact/commercial potential of this project span various areas. Societally, the development of an ultra low cost exoskeleton for elderly assistance could provide a pathway to reduced falls for millions of elderly individuals a year. This would bring along with it increased community mobility and quality of life in addition to the hundreds of millions of savings that it passes on to the healthcare sector. Technically, the development of ultra light exoskeletons with high power density actuation present a significant improvement over conventional technologies. The research in this effort seeks to further invest in the technical foundations for applying light weight, low cost compliant exoskeletons into real world applications. This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project we will develop the technical foundation required for a lightweight powered knee orthosis that is designed to assist elderly individuals in high power maneuvers in their daily lives. It is estimated that 3 million falls occur annually that result in prolonged hospitalization with 39% of them being attributable to muscle weakness as a result of aging. These falls also present a significant monetary burden as non-fatal falls alone cost the US $19 billion in direct medical care annually. Specifically, the project will leverage previous advancements in the design and control of high strength fabric centered robotics to enable the device prototype outside the laboratory setting in elderly care applications. As a result this effort seeks to make advancements in the areas of mobile pneumatic infrastructure, low power closed loop control, and intent recognition.