NSF Convergence Accelerator, Track M: TANDEM: Tensegrity-based Assistive aND rehabilitation Exosuits to complement human bioMechanics

The project will develop bio-inspired exosuits that work in tandem with human biomechanics to augment, assist and rehabilitate. The resulting technology will increase comfort and efficiency motion by not overpowering user motion. It will be used to enhance strength, assist movements, and stimulate rehabilitation while reducing muscular effort, pain, and the chance of occupational injuries. Socio-economically, it will have direct impact on 25% of U.S. population, i.e., adults suffering from chronic musculoskeletal pain. This will lead to better quality of life for those experiencing musculoskeletal disorders such as back and shoulder pain, and prevention of, and assistance with work-related musculoskeletal injuries that currently cost the nation ca $164Bn. The application of this technology in underexplored fields like healthcare and agriculture will have direct impact on shortage of human resources in these fields. The education and workforce development activities will help in broadening the outreach of knowledge about worker health and safety, and use of exoskeletons and exosuits as assistive devices. The design of exosuit will take inspiration from human spine and joints, and leverage principles of tensegrity. Given that tensegrity principles are also the architectural basis for human musculoskeletal system, their use allows for mimicking human biomechanics. The project will design and model technology comprising of Wearable External Tensegrity Reinforcement Spine (WExTeR Spine) and Tensegrity Shoulder exosuit for Shoulder Abduction (TeSSA) with tunable stiffness, sensor feedback and actuation, investigate the adaptation and adoption of these technology for identified end users through feedback and task-specific experiments, and organize workforce training, outreach activities and workshops for public dissemination of the technology. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.