For people with spinal cord injury/disorders (SCI/D), performing daily tasks can be challenging due to their reduced ability to grip and manipulate objects with their hands.
Researchers at the University of Cincinnati have received a $200,000 grant from the Paralyzed Veterans (PVA) in the United States (PVA) to work with community end users to design an American-centric, easy-to-use support device to help restore grip movements.
Study background
Dr. Derek Wolf of UC, the project’s lead researcher, said biomedical engineers developed it to help many exoskeletons (robotic devices worn by users) grasp it. These devices often work well in lab settings, but few end users employ hand exoskeletons and wear them in real settings over the long term.
These create really cool devices, but most of all, they don’t get to the next step. What we’re trying to do with this project is to focus on creating devices that involve end users throughout and actually translate across the lab. ”
Derek Wolf, California Faculty of Mechanical Materials Engineering, University Faculty of Engineering, Assistant Professor of Applied Science
The researchers aim to combine exoskeleton devices with another technique called functional electrical stimulation (FES), which contracts muscles to flow electricity through paralyzed muscles.
“If you just put an exo in someone’s hand, you’re not actually using the hands there, the muscles in the arms there,” Wolf said. “Just throwing EXO has a gap in efficiency. You can use these muscles to generate force and movement.”
The background to Wolf includes FES expertise and incorporating it into a hybrid system. The goal is ultimately to fully integrate FES with the electric skeleton, but the project first attempts to combine passive exoskeletons that cannot move FES alone.
“FES can be difficult to control and get fine motor control, so our hope is to use EXO on top of it to facilitate control of that while movement is driven by the FES,” Wolf explained. “So if FES moves their fingers, EXO will move with it and get a great grasp.”
Wolf said the main barriers include the interface being run by a user-friendly and simple person, the device that users can wear right away and take off on their own, and the fact that each person’s injuries and needs are unique.
“It’s a real challenge to create devices that can help a lot of people but can help individuals,” he said. “Our hope is that by including users through them, we can really do that.”
Keep your end users in mind
As paid members of the project’s two-year research team, Advoces Sarah Elam and Dave Reed provide input on their own needs and test prototypes and new designs, ensuring that the final product is useful and functional for end users like them.
“Professor Wolf told me, ‘I can’t simulate a disorder,” said Elam, 48, who suffers from multiple sclerosis and is a quadriplegic with limited use of her non-dominant left hand. “It’s not something they can make up for with anything else. It was very important for them to know that I’m a teammate and not only came to help them, but I’m a teammate.”
Reed (71), a retired UPS driver, will regain partial movement of his arms and legs and use a wheelchair after a C3 spinal cord injury.
“I was saying yes to the project because I thought it would help others like me, so I thought it was interesting to be part of something bigger than me from a mental health perspective,” Reid said. “I’ve always loved science. I thought it would be a good thing to be involved in a kind of science project. I’m really looking forward to this.”
Reed said the study could better pilot his wheelchair and help him with tasks such as signing his name. Elam pointed out that progress as a team is exciting, even at the early stages of the project.
“In the first session, we were trying to pick up items, pick up cans and grab them, and move the cans,” she said. “But there’s excitement around it – oh, sacred crap, worked the way we wanted it to!”
Wolf said engineers can often get caught up in engineering challenges and big ideas they believe users will be useful, but at the end of the project, their innovations don’t solve real-world problems.
“We’re very excited to be involved with Sarah and Dave, teach students in the lab and teach them how to actually solve things people actually care about,” Wolf said. “My hope is that our two supporters will actually develop a relationship with us and stay with us for the long term. They will guide our next project and our next project, and every project we do is based on real understanding of their needs and the needs of our community.”
Student experience
Ryan Kuda, a PhD student in Mechanical Engineering, said he leads many of the daily design aspects of the project and imagines working on projects like this when considering graduate programs.
“We chose UC because it provides a great opportunity to work in biomechanics and having a medical school nearby is a huge advantage for collaboration and research,” he said. “In many schools and many research programs, you work, but that never leads to real-world change. For me, the most important thing is to do truly translated research.
Working with Reed and Elam’s feedback and needs, CUDA and other teams are currently designing their first prototype exo sales.
“From there, we’re working in a two-month sprint. We’re going to repeat the process of designing prototypes, gathering user feedback, improving the design, and continuing to improve with each iteration,” Cuda says.
Working on the PVA grant is personal to CUDA, who came from military families and planned to join the military himself before an arm injury derailed his plans.
“I understand the kind of support that veterans and service members really need, and I’m constantly listening to the care gap they face,” Cuda said. “My grandpa is a member of the veterans of Foreign Wars and since working closely with the PVA, it really makes sense to contribute to that same mission.”
