Tech

Robotic Titanium Exoskeleton gives wheelchair kids the ability to walk


Wearing a robotic exoskeleton specially designed for children, an 8-year-old boy with cerebral palsy walks through a treatment room in Mexico City, smiling triumphantly at the unimaginable feat.

David Zabala is wheelchair bound due to his neurological condition, which makes him deaf and independent of sign language.

But thanks to the exoskeleton Atlas 2030, who won this year’s European Inventor Award for Inventor, he was able to walk and stand in front of a mirror, where he drew smiling faces with markers. color.

“He’s taking his first steps. It’s a joy for him,” said the boy’s mother, 41-year-old Guadalupe Cardoso.

“At first it scared him and his hands were very tense, and now I see that he’s picked up a marker and started drawing or (playing with) the ball,” added Cardoso.

She says the grueling nearly two-hour journey from their home south of Mexico City to the therapy center was well worth it.

The exoskeleton was designed by Spanish professor Elena Garcia Armada to allow children in wheelchairs to walk during muscle rehab.

The battery-powered titanium suit’s mechanical joints intelligently adapt to each child’s movements, according to the European Patent Office, which awarded Garcia the European Inventor Prize.

Giving paralyzed children the chance to walk “not only prolongs their life and enhances their fitness, but also improves their self-esteem,” it said.

Change life

Mexico is the third country, after Spain and France, where Atlas 2030 has been used to treat children.

Guadalupe Maldonado, director of the Mexican Association of People with Cerebral Palsy, said the suit helps “achieve rehabilitation goals in record time” that can take months to achieve with therapies. normally.

Maldonado says the benefits include strengthening muscles, improving the digestive and respiratory systems and — on top of that — helping to improve mood.

The private foundation, founded in 1970, had positive results two weeks after acquiring the first exoskeleton, she said.

A second device, worth around $250,000 (about Rs. 2 crore), is coming to Mexico City next month.

The initial goal of the association was to support rehabilitation for about 200 children with cerebral palsy.

“We want to keep working and empowering more children in our city and country to have access to this type of rehabilitation… which has completely changed their lives,” Maldonado said.

The sessions are also fun for the therapists, who carefully fit the exoskeleton using its distinctive corsets, cuffs and shoes and celebrate the child’s progress with smiles and applause.

Arturo Palafox, 28, said: “It motivates us so much as a therapist that we will be able to achieve a lot in the future.


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