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The Evryon Project (Evolving Morphologies for Human-Robot Symbiotic Interaction) aims at providing a novel design methodology for harvesting the potentialities of structural intelligence in the development of Wearable Robots, using a design for emergence approach where a symbiotic interaction between the robot and the human body is sought to achieve useful emerging dynamic behaviours.
The goal of the EVRYON project is to develop a novel approach for the design of Wearable Robots (WRs), e.g. exoskeletons, prostheses and other wearable mechatronic devices that can be used for a variety of applications, such as rehabilitation, personal assistance, human augmentation and more. Ideal solutions for such systems should aim at the optimal trade-off between performance, i.e. the level of assistance to be provided to the end-user, and some critical requirements, such as minimal weight and dimensions, low energy consumption and several other factors that can significantly affect the effectiveness and efficiency of WRs.
The application chosen for testing the proposed design method is an active lower limbs orthosis, for restoring a proper gait in aged subjects.
The basic idea behind the EVRYON project is that better WRs can be developed if the potentialities of ‘embodied intelligence’, and particularly of ‘structural intelligence’, are properly harvested and exploited.
EVRYON will develop an open-ended design process where both robot morphology and control are co-evolved and optimized in a simulation environment, where also the dynamical properties of the human body are taken into account. This approach is related to previous findings in the study of the emergence of structural intelligence in animals and artificial systems without any feedback control, such as preflexes in insects and emerging dynamic behaviours in passive walkers.
The EVRYON design methodology will originate a set of advanced tools for assisted mechatronic design that will be validated by developing a novel prototype of a WR, i.e. an active orthosis for the lower limbs.
The EVRYON WR will integrate the kinematic, dynamic and control optimal solutions produced by the co-evolution process with additional variable impedance modules, which will allow the system to properly respond and adapt to the impedance patterns of human walking.
The WR prototype will be tested on a group of elderly subjects with age-related locomotion disabilities so to assess its acceptability and its ability to restore proper walking and increase personal autonomy.
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