Tests of the exoskeleton were carried out on ten volunteers walking on a treadmill, which periodically twitched the canvas to provoke stumbling. In this case, two volunteers had prostheses of the lower extremities.

At the Federal Polytechnic School in Lausanne, the researchers developed a new lightweight exoskeleton designed to save the elderly from accidental falls. The new device is called APO (Active Pelvis Orthosis, active pelvic orthosis).

In the elderly, people have difficulty in coordinating the movement, slowing down the reaction. Because of this accidentally fallen man can get severe bruises and fractures of limbs, which due to the age of a person can not grow together.

During an ordinary walk, the exoskeleton of the APO does not work. It begins to work when the control system determines that the person has stumbled: the active support of the hips and pelvis will automatically turn on to prevent falling.

The exoskeleton needs only 350 milliseconds to determine the beginning of the fall and prevent it.

The APO is made up of three basic elements: a belt and two hip anchors. The hip fasteners are connected to the belt by the rods, which are driven by servo drives. All elements of exoskeleton are made of plastic and carbon fiber. The device weighs 4.2 kilograms, but it is planned to reduce it.

Tests of the exoskeleton were carried out on ten volunteers walking on a treadmill, which periodically twitched the canvas to provoke stumbling. In this case, two volunteers had prostheses of the lower extremities.

Thanks to the support of the APO exoskeleton, no volunteer fell during the test.

In the plans of the researchers to test the exoskeleton in real conditions and reduce the weight of the structure.

As the news of the technology informed, in December 2016 a group of researchers presented an exoskeleton with a neurointerface that allowed to partially restore the mobility of limbs of paralyzed patients. The system is mounted on a wheelchair and is equipped with a protection against false positives. This device was tested on six volunteers who got used to the system in ten minutes.

Source: Economic News.