How can you use technological innovations to help people with movement limitations? This is the question that is occupying Dr Herman van der Kooij, Professor of Biomechatronics and Rehabilitation Technology at the University of Twente and Delft University of Technology. Among other things he is looking at the development of therapy robots, the measurement of restricted movement and how to help people with movement. Prof. Van der Kooij will deliver his inaugural lecture at the University of Twente on 20 September on the occasion of the acceptance of his professorships at the two universities. In it he will discuss current and future robotic rehabilitation technologies. “I believe that a combination of robotic assistance, electrical stimulation and local medication holds the future.”
A robot that teaches paralysed people to walk again: it sounds like science fiction at the moment, but for Herman van der Kooij it is the ultimate aim of his research. One of the things that the Professor and his group are developing is robotic technology to help rehabilitate people with movement limitations.
It all started with the walking robot LOPES, which was developed at the University of Twente. This robot is able to help people, who are partially paralysed as a result of a stroke, with their rehabilitation. LOPES is an exoskeleton in which a person can stand. What makes LOPES’ robotic legs unique is the fact that they do not impose walking movements, they only support the patient where necessary.
Brain signals
Meanwhile Van der Kooij and his group have developed various other high-tech rehabilitation technologies, and they are working on a wide range of new systems. At the University of Twente and Delft University of Technology for example, he is developing the Mindwalker, a robotic suit that can be controlled by signals from the brain and is designed to get people with spinal injuries walking again.
The rehabilitation robots currently available, in spite of their far-reaching capabilities, have quite a few drawbacks. They are generally very heavy, for instance, and it is difficult to teach them new movements and get them to adapt to their surroundings. It is not just more technological innovation that is needed, then, to develop the rehabilitation robots of the future: a thorough knowledge of how the human body works is just as important, says Van der Kooij, who thinks we can learn a lot from humans. “Human movement is more sophisticated than that of robots when it comes to adapting to new situations and learning new tasks.” Van der Kooij thinks that humans can therefore provide inspiration for robotics to develop a new generation of robots that are better able to adapt and learn from experience. “Animal experiments have shown that a combination of robotic assistance, electrical stimulation and local medication is very promising, and I think this combination holds the future for humans too.”
Herman van der Kooij
Van der Kooij is Professor of Biomechatronics and Rehabilitation Technology at the MIRA research institute of the University of Twente (0.8 FTE) and at Delft University of Technology (0.2 FTE). He has published over a hundred scientific articles. He will deliver his inaugural lecture, which is open to the public, at 16:00 on 20 September in the Breedveld Hall of the Waaier Building on the University of Twente campus.
Press note: For more information or a digital version of the text of the inaugural lecture Mens en robot in beweging; een kwestie van constant leren, aanpassen en optimaliseren (‘Man and robot in motion: a question of continual learning, adaptation and optimization’ (available soon)) please contact the UT’s Science Information Officer, Joost Bruysters (+31 (0)53 489 2773 / +31 (0)6 1048 8228).
