A team from Kessler Foundation, West Orange, New Jersey, and the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), Newark, have received a $5 million federal grant from the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research to develop new applications for wearable robotic exoskeleton devices to improve mobility and enable safer, more independent functioning for people with spinal cord injuries (SCIs), Duchenne muscular dystrophy (MD), and stroke. The team will also evaluate the efficacy of existing robots for restoring and expanding limb mobility.
The grant funds five projects-two research projects led by Kessler Foundation ($2 million) and two developmental initiatives and a research study led by NJIT ($3 million). The two institutions will consult on each other’s projects, with NJIT contributing engineering expertise and upper-limb robotic research and Kessler Foundation providing its knowledge of existing commercial devices and experience working with diverse populations with disabilities.
At Kessler Foundation, Gail Forrest, PhD, associate director of Human Performance and Engineering Research, will combine exoskeletal-assisted walking with external electrical stimulation of the spinal cord toward potentially promoting voluntary muscle firing and independent walking. While senior research scientist Karen Nolan, PhD, will extend her preliminary research on the use of Ekso Bionics’ Ekso GT in inpatients with motor deficits caused by acute stroke.
At NJIT, Richard Foulds, PhD, associate professor of biomedical engineering and principal investigator for the grant, will lead the development of two new exoskeletons. One seeks to enhance real-world, robot-assisted walking for people with SCIs. The second will employ the same novel user-control strategy to support arm function in individuals with Duchenne MD. Sergei Adamovich, PhD, associate professor of biomedical engineering and a coprincipal investigator for the grant, will lead a project to extend his team’s earlier work linking robotic exoskeletons with virtual reality platforms to improve neurorehabilitation therapy for people with limited arm movement due to stroke.
