The SoftPro project will study and design soft synergy-based robotics technologies to develop new prostheses, exoskeletons, and assistive devices for upper limb rehabilitation, which will greatly enhance the efficacy and accessibility to a greater number of users. Building on solid methodological bases, SoftPro will produce a significant social impact, promoting advanced robot prosthetic and assistive technology “from bench to bedside”; but it will also introduce disruptively new, admittedly risky but potentially high-impact ideas and paradigms.
SoftPro is a joint effort of many partners among which are Italian Institute of Technology, University of Twente, TMSi, Centro "E. Piaggio" University of Pisa, Leibniz Universität Hannover, and ETH Zürich. Robotics and Mechatronics is involved in the interfacing technology between a biological human and an artificial system (and vice versa), the development of compliant assistive devices, energy-based control of robotic systems to ensure safe and stable operation, as well as distributed sensing of neuromuscular activation and dynamic interaction between body, soft support and environment by using 3D-printed sensing structures. For more information, visit http://softpro.eu.
SoftPro has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under Grant Agreement No. 688857.