Description of partecipating institution

The University of Twente is an entrepreneurial research university. It was founded in 1961 and offers education and research in areas ranging from public policy studies and applied physics to biomedical technology. The Institute for Technical Medicine and Biomedical Technology (UT-ITM/BMTI) is leading in biomedical technology research in areas ranging from biomechatronics and neural engineering to tissue engineering and was established in order to increase research efforts regarding the integration of technology in medicine. The EVRYON project will be executed at the department of Biomechanical Engineering Laboratory (www.bw.ctw.utwente.nl).

Main tasks

The UT will be work package leader of the human in the loop simulations with LOPES (WP 3) and will contribute to the other work packages.

Expertise

The UT has expertise in the development and evaluations of lab based exoskeletons that are now clinically applied for the rehabilitation of patients with neurological disorders. LOPES is powered exoskeletons for gait training that is actuated with series elastic actuators and impedance controlled in which subject can walk unhindered but can also be supported when they are unable to walk on their own. The experience with the development of LOPES can be used in the development of wearable robot. LOPES performance is also sufficient to perform preliminary test to investigate different concepts of variable dynamics actuators, evolutionary control algorithms, and human machine interfacing.

Key personnel

Dr. VAN DER KOOIJ is associate professor at the Department of Biomechanical Engineering at the University of Twente (0.8 fte), Delft University of Technology (0.2 fte), the Netherlands. His expertise and interests are in the field of human motor control, adaptation, and learning, rehabilitation robots, diagnostic robotics, virtual reality, rehabilitation medicine, and neuro computational modelling. He is member of member of IEEE EMBS technical committee of Biorobots and was member of several scientific program committees in the field of rehabilitation robotics, bio robotics, and assistive devices. At the UT he is founder and head of Rehabiliation robotics laboratory that developed powered exoskeletons for the rehabilitation of upper and lower extremities. He is also founder and head of the Virutal Reality Human performance lab.

Dr. VAN ASSELDONK is assistant professor at the Department of Biomechanical Engineering at the University of Twente the Netherlands. During his PhD he investigated recovery mechanisms in the lower extremities of stroke patients and contributed to the development of a new robotic gait training device for the rehabilitation of neurological patients. He is now working on adaptive control schemes for the robotic gait trainer and he investigates the applicability of robotic devices for training and assessment in neurological patients.

BRAM KOOPMAN received his M.Sc. degree in Biomedical Engineering in 2008 from the University of Twente. His thesis focused on the feasibility of Virtual Model Control for the selective support of gait subtasks during robotic gait training. He is currently a PhD student at the Laboratory of Biomechanical Engineering under the supervision of Dr. van de Kooij and Dr. van Asseldonk. His research program concerns the development of a new protocol to measure human joint impedance for the clinical assessment of neurological patients. His research interests are in the field of biomechatronics with particular interests in wearable devices for gait rehabilitation.

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