65438+1October 2 1 day, Shanghai Fourier Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. Exoskeleton Robot Open Platform and Fourier X2 Conference was held in Shanghai. At the meeting, real people "put on" a new generation of intelligent lower limb exoskeleton robot Fourier X2 for demonstration. Exoskeleton Robot Open Platform (EXOPS) jointly built by Fourier Intelligence, National Instruments (NI) and University of Melbourne has been officially launched in the world. In the future, schools, scientific research institutions and clinical centers can carry out the secondary development of exoskeleton robots on this platform, and start from scratch without investing a lot of manpower and material resources, thus greatly promoting the rapid landing of exoskeleton robots and their wide application in various fields.
At the scene, experts in the field of exoskeleton robots, seed users of the open platform of exoskeleton robots (including representatives of many world-renowned universities and research institutions) and partners from more than 20 countries around the world made a concentrated appearance. Professor Denny Oetomo from department of mechanical engineering, University of Melbourne, Qiao Wei, Sales Director of National Instrument (NI) in Greater China, Jie Gu, CEO of Intelligent, and Zen KOH, Chief Strategy Officer of Intelligent delivered relevant keynote speeches.
Exoskeleton robot is a wearable dynamic exoskeleton system in principle, which has rich application prospects. For example, in the future, people with lower limb paralysis can drive their lower limbs without muscle strength through the power it provides to realize walking and other functions.
This time, what's unusual about the exoskeleton robot Fourier X2 after intelligent upgrade iteration? Jie Gu introduced the following points at the press conference:
The first is to be smarter. In the course of several years' development, Fourier X2 has formed a strong technical barrier. Fourier X2 released this time takes motion control system, power unit and mechanical sensing system as the core, which can be used in many fields such as assisting walking, rehabilitation training and strengthening motor function.
From the structure of the whole exoskeleton robot, Fourier X2 has four power units and six multi-dimensional mechanical sensors, which are located in the thighs, calves and soles. Through the arrangement of more than ten sensors, a set of sensing system can be formed, which can "read" people's motion intention more intelligently, and then adjust the power output according to the intensity to realize different motion modes. At present, most products on the market can only achieve passive mode, which means that people can only be forced to follow the fixed trajectory preset by the machine. Fourier intelligence can realize the interaction between exoskeleton robot and human through its unique force feedback control algorithm, and the gait trajectory can also be adjusted in real time according to the user's strength and the changes of external dynamic environment. At the same time, the exoskeleton robot Fourier X2 has exquisite mechanical transmission design, high-performance servo motor and reducer provide powerful torque output, and a self-developed motion control board is built in, which provides powerful calculation support for dynamic adjustment of motion trajectory and speed and data acquisition.
The second one is lighter and more wear-resistant. The structure of traditional exoskeleton robot products is to stack the reducer and motor together. The whole machine is very heavy, and the contact comfort with human body is weak, so it is difficult to use it frequently in life. However, based on biomechanics and ergonomics, Fourier X2 has adopted some innovative ways to reduce the volume and weight of exoskeleton, such as using a large number of composite materials such as carbon fiber, which can ensure the rigidity of the whole structure and minimize the sense of load. The weight of foreign lower limb exoskeleton products with the same type of four power units is generally about 25 kg, while the weight of Fourier X2 is only 18 kg, which is 35% lower than that of the previous generation exoskeleton robot Fourier X 1.
The third one is cheaper. The price is a very important factor why exoskeleton robots have not been well popularized. Exoskeleton robots in Europe and America often cost millions, which is unbearable for a family. Therefore, a major trend in the development of exoskeleton robots is to make it affordable for everyone who needs it.
Jie Gu said that through technology, product iteration, and improvement of technology and supply chain system, Fourier X2 is a robot that can be really applied and mass-produced. "We will be firmly on the road to recovery. First of all, we will help a large number of patients who can't walk to carry out rehabilitation training. In the future, we will help them stand and walk, return to life, and make exoskeleton robots an indispensable tool in their daily lives. "
Fourier will focus on the field of rehabilitation, but exoskeleton robots also have great development prospects in other fields such as industry and military. At present, many teams in universities, scientific research institutions and enterprises all over the world are developing exoskeleton robots. However, if this emerging frontier technology starts from scratch, it will be extremely difficult, and the market for exoskeleton robots will hardly break out. Based on this, another important project of this conference-Exoskeleton Robot Open Platform (EXOPS) was born.
Zen pointed out that there are hundreds of laboratories and companies around the world developing exoskeleton robots in different application fields, but it often takes tens of millions of dollars and years to develop an exoskeleton robot. However, a lot of development work is repeated or started from scratch, which causes a certain waste of resources and makes it difficult to popularize the technology. We hope that the industry will not reinvent the wheel, just as the computer department does not need to develop an operating system or a CPU, and the laboratory can develop special applications suitable for various fields on an open platform.
Open platform, data acquisition system and motion control system of exoskeleton robot pioneered by Fourier X2. Established jointly by American Fourier Intelligence and National Instrument (NI) and University of Melbourne, it will build a software-centered and hardware-modularized exoskeleton robot ecosystem for global developers. Developers can carry out secondary development on this platform, just as Lego toys provide building blocks, users can use these building blocks to build colorful finished products. EXOPS is equipped with a set of developer SDK (Software Development Toolkit), which calls information through various computer language platforms and handles complex control algorithms. With the help of SDK, developers can adjust the parameters of exoskeleton such as pace and gait, collect real-time data of various sensors and control multiple power units to realize walking assistance. EXOPS can adapt to a variety of external devices, for example, through augmented reality glasses, combined with EEG signal acquisition cap, to convert EEG signals into exoskeleton control commands.
At present, many universities and scientific research institutions have joined the platform plan of exoskeleton robot open platform, which is the first wave of seed users. Based on this platform, some remarkable achievements have been made. For example, in cooperation with Professor Xu Guanghua of Xi Jiaotong University, Fourier Intelligence applied the autonomous brain control technology of visual evoked enhancement to the lower limb exoskeleton robot for the first time, so that people can control the exoskeleton robot to walk through "ideas".
At the press conference, Zen compared the process of exoskeleton robot from single product development to platform empowerment with well-known mobile phones. At the beginning, various manufacturers launched various forms of mobile phone items, but in the end, after the release of Apple and Android, it will become a real industrial chain. Other developers can develop and create on the shoulders of giants, but only if manufacturers dare to be the first to provide a broad platform recognized by everyone. This is the case with the exoskeleton robot platform built by Fourier Intelligent, National Instrument (NI) and University of Melbourne.
When talking about the respective responsibilities of sponsors, Zen said that Fourier Intelligence mainly focuses on the field of rehabilitation robots. On this basis, the preparation for mass production of exoskeleton robot is completed, including providing widely used hardware platform, control system and commercial module; NI is an American company with thousands of customers all over the world. The data acquisition system and visual programming system provided by it can be integrated into the platform. University of Melbourne can provide robot teaching, courses and so on. We will open the software interface SDK with the University of Melbourne and provide a common software interface on the open platform. In the future, their team can develop applications on drivers, whether in artificial intelligence laboratories, robot control laboratories, electromechanical control laboratories, etc.
"We hope that more developers can participate in the research process of exoskeleton robots and work together to constantly change human potential and promote the development of the exoskeleton robot industry chain." Zen said, "This conference is just the beginning. In the next step, we will cooperate with the world's top artificial intelligence and robotics laboratories to undertake research projects based on EXOPS, and turn high-quality projects into commercial and clinical projects, and finally promote exoskeleton robots to become a general technology. For the open platform, we will continue to do it in the next ten or twenty years. We believe that this platform will empower developers and markets to build a truly sustainable intelligent robot value chain. We look forward to working with global developers to solve real problems and benefit more people. "