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Exoskeletons, which have appeared in countless film and television works, are becoming the "armor" that allows countless paralyzed patients to walk again. In 2013, Shuai Mei's team at Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics developed the first exoskeleton robot in China. In 2016, Da Ai Robotics was established. After more than ten years of in-depth research and development and marketization, the "black technology" of exoskeleton robots has entered the vast rehabilitation market from university laboratories, and has obtained China's first exoskeleton Class II innovative medical device and the first medical device registration certificate, changing the dilemma of major malignant diseases such as paraplegia, hemiplegia, and cerebral palsy that are almost impossible to recover. With the help of exoskeleton robots, paraplegic patients not only regained the perception of their legs, but also completed a full marathon distance walk. At present, 200-300 hospitals across the country have introduced Da Ai exoskeleton robots. Each machine can help about 16 patients with rehabilitation training every day, greatly improving the efficiency of rehabilitation.

Running a marathon wearing an exoskeleton

Near the South Third Ring Road in Beijing, there is an inconspicuous rehabilitation center located between residential buildings. The center is filled with various types of "steel skeletons" that can help patients with stroke, hemiplegia, paraplegia, cerebral palsy, etc. to conduct lower limb walking rehabilitation training. On a Friday afternoon, a Beijing Business Daily reporter met Shao Haipeng who was undergoing rehabilitation training here.

In 2017, due to an accident, Shao Haipeng fell from a high altitude. After being rushed to the hospital, he was diagnosed with bilateral lower limb paraplegia due to spinal cord injury.

In Shao Haipeng's story, being stuck in a wheelchair is only the first half of the story. By chance, Shao Haipeng learned from a rehabilitation therapist that a company in Beijing has developed the latest exoskeleton robot that can help paraplegic patients recover. The company is recruiting volunteers for clinical trials. With the mentality of giving it a try, Shao Haipeng came to Beijing. With the help of the machine, in less than a month, Shao Haipeng's lost perception in his lower body slowly returned, and he began to feel the contraction of his thigh muscles.

Seeing hope, Shao Haipeng contacted the exoskeleton robot company called Da Ai Robot again after the experiment and started exoskeleton rehabilitation training, which was rarely tried at the time. Seven years later, with the help of exoskeleton robot technology, Shao Haipeng can walk independently by himself.

In 2018, Shao Haipeng also completed a full marathon wearing an exoskeleton robot. He won first place with a total time of 9 days and a net time of 26 hours, and broke the world record of completing a robot walking marathon in 15 days abroad.

Like Shao Haipeng, there are more and more hemiplegic and paraplegic patients who have started walking again with the help of exoskeleton technology. Shuai Mei, professor at Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, founder and chairman of Da Ai Robotics, told Beijing Business Daily that as one of the earliest scientific and technological innovation companies in China focusing on the field of exoskeletons, Da Ai Robotics' exoskeleton robot products have been applied to 200-300 hospitals across the country. Taking Beijing as an example, more than 40 hospitals are currently equipped with Da Ai exoskeleton robots as rehabilitation equipment.

Shuai Mei said that the emergence of exoskeleton robots not only allows patients to walk again, but also improves the existing rehabilitation efficiency. For example, if a hospital purchases two exoskeleton robot rehabilitation devices, each device can help at least 16-17 patients with rehabilitation training every day. Compared with the current rehabilitation model that mainly relies on rehabilitation therapists, it greatly improves efficiency and efficacy.

Representatives of “medical and engineering integration”

From the research history of exoskeleton, foreign research and development started nearly ten years earlier than that of China. The world's first upright walking exoskeleton robot was born in Switzerland in 2000. At that time, domestic research in the field of exoskeleton was almost zero. In 2010, Shuai Mei, who taught at Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, began to invest in the research of exoskeleton robots.

It is understood that the exoskeleton is another skeleton driven by an external power source in addition to the human skeleton. When driving a person to walk, the exoskeleton needs to achieve a human-like effect. Therefore, simulating rehabilitation gait through gait algorithms has become the core technology in research and development.

Shuai Mei said that from the perspective of composition and structure, the exoskeleton is actually a metal structure product with low flexibility. When it acts on a person, the degree of freedom is difficult to simulate the effect of a real person.

Seeing this reality, Shuai Mei and her team simplified the exoskeleton robot they had originally envisioned during the research and development process, focusing on the hip and knee joints. By performing two rotational movements around the horizontal plane, they controlled the leg lifting and landing posture, i.e. the walking posture. At the same time, by establishing a dynamic model of the lower limb muscle-bone bionic robot, they achieved stable walking control of the lower limb exoskeleton robot based on force and position mixed compliant control.

In 2013, Shuaimei's team developed the first generation of exoskeleton robots. In 2016, Da Ai Robotics was officially established. Today, Da Ai Robotics has developed six series and more than ten types of exoskeleton robot products. The "steel skeleton" that was once only seen in university laboratories has entered the market.

As a representative product of "integration of medicine and engineering", the development of exoskeleton robots is not a one-time thing, and further exploration is needed under market testing. In actual application, in order to make the exoskeleton robot suitable for more diseases and longer courses of disease, the Big Ai robot has added a safe balance mobile platform at the waist and hip to improve the product's safe walking, balance, mobility and rehabilitation effect in clinical applications. This design is original in the world.

In terms of cost, due to the high cost of exoskeleton materials and the need to accurately match patients, the price of medical exoskeleton robots is often millions of yuan, which is not suitable for home use. In order to reduce costs and meet personal needs, Da Ai Robot has also begun to develop personal exoskeleton robots in recent years. At present, the prices of Da Ai Robot's personal version products on the market range from more than 20,000 yuan to 160,000 yuan. According to the purpose, these exoskeleton robots can be used for daily rehabilitation and refined rehabilitation.

Low price, lightweight, AI

Although domestic exoskeleton robots started late, this field is aimed at nearly 20 million people with limb disabilities and the growing aging population, and there is a large demand gap. According to the data from the National Bureau of Statistics, as of 2023, the total number of people with limb disabilities in my country will be 17.355 million. Most people with limb disabilities cannot walk, cannot stand, and are bedridden for a long time. The emergence of exoskeleton robot technology means that they can have a chance to walk again.

In Shuai Mei's opinion, the significance of exoskeleton robot technology in the field of rehabilitation is not only to achieve a leap from 0 to 1, but also a leap from 1 to 100. Before the emergence of exoskeleton robots, many patients with difficult and serious hemiplegia had been trained in hospitals through traditional rehabilitation methods for many years, but with little effect. After using exoskeleton robots for intervention training, many patients can achieve independent walking with the assistance of machines in only about 6-9 months, and can maintain correct gait without regression of walking ability.

Beijing Business Daily reporters noticed that in order to reduce the financial pressure of patients' rehabilitation, rehabilitation training programs using exoskeleton robots have been included in Beijing's Class A medical insurance.

When it comes to the next step of technological innovation and product development, Shuai Mei has set her sights on more affordable and intelligent personal exoskeleton products. After training at Da Ai's rehabilitation center, many users have the idea of ​​taking the products home. In this regard, she hopes to further innovate the products and further achieve lower prices, lighter weight and AI-based products.

In terms of intelligence, Shuai Mei introduced that with the continuous advancement of current artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies, exoskeleton robots will develop in a more intelligent direction. The new products will be able to monitor the wearer's movement status and rehabilitation progress in real time, automatically adjust the assistance strategy, and adapt to the patient's functional changes during the rehabilitation process. Exoskeletons with AI self-learning capabilities will also be able to better assist patients with different types and degrees of spinal cord injuries or brain injuries.

At present, Da Ai Robot has launched a new generation of AI exoskeleton robot products. Through AI "embodied intelligence technology", the robot can accurately sense the wearer's movement intentions and walking conditions. At the same time, this generation of products is also lighter than before.

In Shuai Mei's view, in the future, AI exoskeleton robots will have huge application potential in medical rehabilitation, elderly care and big health fields.

The next goal of Da Ai Robotics and Shuai Mei is to help more people walk again through exoskeleton robot technology. Shao Haipeng, who has already walked again, has also set a future plan for himself: he hopes to make a power-assisted bicycle and take a trip around China on the three newly-connected national highways while enjoying the scenery.

Beijing Business Daily reporter Zhao Boyu