Exoskeletons and Soft Wearable Robotics Day

We, the XoSoft consortium, are excited to announce that we’ll be hosting a Exoskeletons and Soft Wearable Robotics Day. The event will feature live demonstration of multiple exoskeletons and prototypes in action, key note talks held by experts in the field of wearable robotics and a Swiss start-up, and pitches from five EU funded wearable robotics projects. The Exoskeletons and Soft Wearable Robotics Day is an excellent opportunity to build future collaboration and business partnerships. Stakeholders from industry and academia will be present and eager to discuss potential opportunities.

Register:

Due to high demand, registration is now closed for the Exoskeletons and Soft Wearable Robotics Day

Date:

14th March 2019, 10:00-16:30

Location:

Meet Berlage, Oudebrugsteeg 9, 1012JN Amsterdam

Agenda:

Time	Session
09:00 – 10:00	Registration – Coffee and Exhibition
10:00 – 10:15	Welcome –Exoskeletons and Soft Wearable Robotics
10:15 – 11:00	Key note speeches from experts Advanced technology in the clinic for everyday neurological rehabilitation Dr. Marco Molinari, Director Neurorehabilitation 1 and Spinal Center, IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia, IT From the Wrong Trousers to the Right Trousers: developing core technologies for wearable assistance Prof. Jonathan Rossiter, Professor of Robotics University of Bristol, Dept of Engineering Mathematics and Bristol Robotics Laboratory, UK The MyoSuit - An exo-muscle that keeps you moving Kai Schmidt, CTO and Co-Founder MyoSwiss AG, CH 15 minutes each
11:00 – 11:30	Coffee break
11:30 – 12:30	European funded project pitches on smart, intelligent and soft robotic key enabling technologies Short project presentations XoSoft – Soft modular biomimetic exoskeleton to assist people with mobility impairments (H2020 No. 688175) CYBERLEGs ++ – The CYBERnetic LowEr-Limb CoGnitive Ortho-prosthesiS Plus Plus (H2020 No. 731931) Soft Pro – Synergy-based Open-source Foundations and Technologies for Prosthetics and RehabilitatiOn (H2020 No. 688857) Symbitron  – Symbiotic man-machine interactions in wearable exoskeletons to enhance mobility for paraplegics (FP7 No. 661626) Spexor – Spinal exoskeletal robot for low back pain prevention and vocational reintegration 10 minutes each: 5 minutes for pitch, 5 minutes feedback
12:30 – 13:30	Lunch break and networking
13:30 – 14:00	Prototype demonstrators and networking
14:30 – 15:30	Two parallel workshops (2 rotating groups, 30 minutes each) 1. EU funding opportunities - chaired by Jeanette Müller, accelopment AG, supported by Ruben Wassink,  Horizon 2020 National Contact Point for ICT & FET 2. Standardisation and Benchmarking of Medical Devices - chaired by Leonard O’Sullivan, University of Limerick and contributions from relevant experts Jan Veneman, COST action Gerdienke Prange, COVR Project Diego Torricelli, co-IP of Eurobench project
15:30 – 16:30	Stakeholders Roundtable
16:30	End of Cluster Day

Key note speakers:

Dr. Marco Molinari
Director Neurorehabilitation 1 and Spinal Center, IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia, IT

Dr. Marco Molinari (Neurologist, Physical medicine and rehabilitation specialist, PhD in Neuroscience) is the Director of Neurorehabilitation Translational Research and Clinic 1 at IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia, Rome. The Department integrates Neuroscience research and clinical neurological rehabilitation units. The clinical ward is devoted to rehabilitation of patients with brain or spinal cord lesions in a multidisciplinary environment. Research activity has been always focused on brain plasticity mechanisms and functional recovery both at basic science and clinical levels. Basic science approaches in animal models as well as development and testing of new technological in humans characterize Dr Molinari research experience. In the last decade research activities mostly focused on human machine interactions applied to neurological rehabilitation, Dr. Molinari is author of over 150 articles published on indexed journals. SCOPUS H-index 53. He is Review Editor of The Cerebellum.

Prof. Jonathan Rossiter
Professor of Robotics University of Bristol, Dept of Engineering Mathematics and Bristol Robotics Laboratory, UK

Jonathan Rossiter is Professor of Robotics at Bristol Robotics Laboratory and the University of Bristol. He is Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in Emerging Technologies and EPSRC Research Fellow.  Jonathan is a leading innovator of soft robotics, covering the wide spectrum of development from smart materials to smart machines.  He led the EPSRC research project: 'The Right Trousers - Wearable Soft Robotics for Independent Living', a major investigation into soft robotic lower-limb assistance and the development of core actuation and sensing technologies for wearable assistance.  This fits under the broad focus of his research into bio-integrating soft robots: robots that operate in, on and with the human body to make it function better, to restore lost function and the enhance its capabilities above those it natural possesses.  Jonathan has published over 180 peer reviewed publication, patents and commercial licenses.

Kai Schmidt
CTO and Co-Founder MyoSwiss AG, CH

Kai Schmidt holds MSc and BSc degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the Technische Universität Berlin where he also trained in process improvement and received a Six Sigma green belt certification. After receiving his BSc degree, he gained experience in the development of medical devices when he was working on ECG devices at Welch Allyn in Singapore. Prior to his PhD work at ETH Zurich, Kai spent two years as a research fellow at the Biodesign Lab in the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University. There, he was a pioneer in the work of developing wearable assistive technology for military applications as part of the Warrior Web DARPA challenge. Following his work at the Wyss Institute, Kai joined ETH Zurich as a doctoral student to develop a wearable system to assist people with spinal cord injury. As a result of his work at ETH Zurich, he co-founded the company MyoSwiss that develops technical solutions to enable people with muscle weakness to train intensively and regain mobility. Kai is author of several scientific publications and patents in the field of wearable assistive devices.

Projects:

CYBERLEGs ++ - The CYBERnetic LowEr-Limb CoGnitive Ortho-prosthesiS PlusPlus

SoftPro - Synergy-based Open-source Foundations and Technologies for Prosthetics and RehabilitatiOn

SPEXOR - Spinal exoskeletal robot for low back pain prevention and vocational reintegration

Symbitron – Symbiotic man-machine interactions in wearable exoskeletons to enhance mobility for paraplegics

XoSoft - Soft modular biomimetic exoskeleton to assist people with mobility impairments

Workshop contributors:

Jeanette Müller - founder and CEO of accelopment AG
Chairing the session on EU funding opportunities, Jeanette Müller has over 20 years of experience in the acquisition and management of publicly funded projects (IT, life sciences, social sciences and renewable energies) and has specialised in R&D and innovation projects. She will bring participants closer to possible funding opportunities for wearable robots and relevant research areas.

Ruben Wassink – Senior Advisor and Horizon 2020 National Contact Point for ICT & FET at Ministry of Economic Affairs
After several years of research on the applicability of artificial intelligence in rehabilitation, Ruben Wassink was appointed Horizon 2020 National Contact Point for ICT and FET. In the session on EU funding opportunities, he will point out the future opportunities for exoskeletons and robotics in Horizon 2020 and provide an outlook on Horizon Europe.

Leonard O'Sullivan - Senior lecturer in Ergonomics and Human Factors in the Design Factors Research Group at the University of Limerick
Leonard O’Sullivan will be chairing the workshop session on Standardisation and Benchmarking of Medical Devices. He will guide the interactive workshop session on relevant issues for standardisation and benchmarking of wearable robots which promises a lively and highly relevant discussion among the participants and the three representatives.  His research interests are human factors in medical device innovation and in the usability of medical products.

Jan Veneman - Chair of the COST Action CA16116 - Wearable Robots for Augmentation, Assistance or Substitution of Human Motor Functions
As Wearable Robots continuously interact with humans in multiple situations, Human Robot Interaction, Ergonomics, and Ethical, Legal and Societal (ELS) considerations, as well as early involvement of stakeholders are of essential interest. The COST Action CA16116 focuses on the European integration of different underlying disciplines in science and engineering, as well as on engaging of stakeholders to improve WR technology and its societal impact.

Gerdienke Prange  - Human Movement Scientist, Roessingh Research and Development representing the COVR project
COVRs mission is to increase safety for all robots sharing space with humans by
applying skill-based testing across robot domains. Though RRD has a main focus on rehabilitation robots, COVR spans robot applications across domains, from manufacturing via agriculture to healthcare, in its strong collaboration of five national research and technology organisations. Through the development of an intuitive toolkit and a range of testing protocols for validation of safety for collaborative robots, COVR aims to increase the safety of all types of collaborative robots across all domains.

Diego Torricelli - Head of Neuromotor Coordination Lab at the Neural Rehabilitation Group, Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) representing the EUROBENCH project
His research interests are the understanding of motor control principles related to coordination, the development of quantitative indicators of motor performance, and the development of bio-inspired machines for neural rehabilitation. He is currently the Delegate Coordinator of the EUROBENCH Project, and coordinator of the international community on Benchmarking Bipedal Locomotion.
The EUROBENCH project is creating the first benchmarking framework for bipedal robotic systems in Europe, which will allow companies and researchers to test robotic technologies at any stage of development. The project will primarily focus on exoskeletons, prostheses and humanoids, but aims to be extended to other robotic domains in the near future. The EUROBENCH framework will be composed of:

• Two Testing Facilities, one for wearable robots (in Spain) and one for humanoid robots (in Italy). These facilities will include innovative testbeds to rigorously test robot performance on a multitude of daily life scenarios (e.g. rough terrains, stairs, obstacles, moving ground, pushes, etc..) in a unique location, saving resources and time.
  
• A Benchmarking Software that will allow anyone, anywhere, to execute the tests and automatically calculate performance indicators, as well as compare the results with a large set of data stored in the EUROBENCH Database.
  

The EUROBENCH Framework is now under construction, with the help of 17 different Consortia in Europe, funded under the First EUROBENCH Open Call. In late 2020, the Framework will be ready and offered to Third Parties interested in using it as Beta Testers. Interested in participating? Stay tuned for the Second EUROBENCH Open Call.
More info at: http://eurobench2020.eu