2023-05-09 12:15:34
Duchenne muscular dystrophy is a disease that affects nearly 5 in 100,000 male children. Being an X-linked disease, most children suffer from it. This disease is characterized by causing muscle weakness and fatigue, lack of stability when walking, cardiac and respiratory complications, especially in adulthood. These characteristics lead to the confinement of children to wheelchairs from a very early age. Being considered a disease without a cure, efforts are focused on preserving the patient’s autonomy for as long as possible. In this sense, physical therapy is the best tool to slow down muscular dystrophy.
Given the lack of adequate technological tools to carry out physiotherapy with patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, researchers from the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM) in Spain and the University of San Buenaventura (USB) in Colombia have devised the design mechanical, electronic and control systems of a robotic exoskeleton that would allow automating the physical therapy processes of these patients. This technology has the objective of serving as support to medical personnel when executing therapy processes with less physical fatigue, greater repeatability and with a better evaluation of the patient’s progress.
For the engineering design of the robotic exoskeleton and the study of its performance, the researchers have used a hybrid dynamic-mathematical model of the exoskeleton and the body of a child based on the anthropometry of a population of six-year-old children. Numerical simulations have validated the performance and robustness of the system. According to Álvaro Gutiérrez and Jaime Arcos-Legarda, researchers from the ETSI of Telecommunications of the UPM participating in the study: “this exoskeleton is conceived as an assistance tool for medical personnel, who in the end are in charge of supervising and adjusting the routines movement to meet rehabilitation goals.
General structure of the exoskeleton for therapy for children with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. (Image: UPM)
Future research will focus on the clinical evaluation of the exoskeleton, which will provide evidence of the positive impact that the use of this technology can have on the quality of life of boys with Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
Gutiérrez, Arcos-Legarda and their colleagues present the technical details of their new robotic exoskeleton in the academic journal Applied Sciences, under the title “Mechatronics Design of a Gait-Assistance Exoskeleton for Therapy of Children with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy”. (Source: UPM)
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