For my science fair project, I built a robotic exoskeleton that helps patients who have lost strength or mobility in their leg to regain their range of motion, control, and flexibility. This apparatus attaches to the outside of the leg like an exoskeleton and uses motors at the knee and ankle to, like a physical therapist, help a patient perform basic activities or improve their flexibility.

This robot was designed with sensors connected to the upper thigh, knee, calf, ankle, and foot so that the patient’s movement can be assessed and displayed on a screen.

With these sensors, a computer could even analyze the patient’s movement and like a Nintendo Wii, transform the information it receives about the sensors’ positions in space into a video game. The edition of sensors connected to the robot could make physical therapy more interesting for child patients and encourage them to participate in therapy more often. Hopefully, this would lead to more rapid improvement. 

The inspiration for this robot was the work being done at the Rehabilitation Robotics Lab at UPenn. In this lab, students and scientists build robots that can help patients with therapy the same way that physical therapists do. They have built many robots that help children who have lost control in their arms due to Cerebral Palsy. Their robots help to regain mobility and flexibility. They use motors to power exoskeletons or robotic arms that guide patients’ arms in therapy. They help kids practice basic movements like bringing cups to their mouths or lifting objects. To make physical therapy more interesting for kids, they also transform basic movements into a video game.

Although I was totally inspired by the work being done at this lab by students and by Dr. Michelle Johnson, I wanted to incorporate a different limb. 

The main purpose of this project was to learn more about how I can combine my love of engineering and my passion for helping those around me. For instance, I like to think that my robots could someday help my elderly grandmother or young children struggling with a disability. After researching, I found that in the past decades, there has been a large gap between the number of physical therapists in the workforce and the number of patients in need of physical therapy. The population of seniors in the US is increasing rapidly and by 2050, is expected to double. It is also expected that stroke caused disability will become increasingly common. However, there will likely not be enough physical therapists to treat these stroke patients.

In turn, millions of disabled individuals will go untreated and never regain strength or mobility in their limbs in the coming decades. In order to compensate for this increase in patients, I feel that robot-assisted therapy can act as one solution to this problem and hopefully serve millions around the world.