A Powerful and Wearable Artificial Muscle (ExoMuscle)

Overview

CUHK has adopted the latest engineering design to develop the “ExoMuscle”. This provides stroke patients personalized, affordable and multi-functional printed artificial muscle for the rehabilitation process and thus to facilitate better motor function recovery. This technology has been licensed by CUHK academic-led start-up Hopebotics Limited.

  • A Powerful and Wearable Artificial Muscle (ExoMuscle) 0
  • A Powerful and Wearable Artificial Muscle (ExoMuscle) 1
Commercialisation opportunities
Product/service distribution
Problem addressed

Due to the bulkiness of traditional rehabilitation robotic devices, stroke rehabilitation training can never take place outside the hospitals, and it is difficult to apply on shoulder and wrist joints for their complex movements. This is not favorable for assisting stroke patients in performing daily tasks at home, which directly reduces the effectiveness of stroke recovery. However, the ExoMuscle is smaller and lighter. Patients can even integrate it into their daily life to deal with any daily activity.

Innovation
  • Researchers in robotics have always been pursuing high-performance artificial muscles for use in unconstrained scenarios. However, currently there is no technology that can exceed the comprehensive performance of human skeletal muscle, which limits the ability to achieve sufficient power or high efficiency. The ExoMuscle is a patented design aimed at achieving comprehensive high performance, particularly for wearable robots that can assist patients and enhance human capabilities.
  • The latest printing technology and fiber design have reduced the bulkiness of traditional rehabilitation devices, making the Exomuscle strong enough to lift a 20kg water bottle.
Key impact
  • The ExoMuscle can be designed with different sizes and shapes.
  • The system is also designed to use brain waves or muscle signals to facilitate motor relearning using brain-machine interfaces (BCI) and myoelectric sensors.
Award
  • Special grand prize and Gold Medal with the Congratulations of the Jury at 48th International Exhibition of Inventions Geneva
Application
  • A wearable artificial muscle with superior performance such as high-power density, actuation stress, strain and efficiency exceeding the corresponding metrics of skeletal muscle for the comfort whole-body assistance such as shoulder, elbow, wrist, hip, ankle and etc.
  • In the future, the ExoMuscle can be made to help carry heavy objects, avoid vulnerable types of work, and protect workers and caregivers from injury by occupational safety and health.

Patent

  • US Patent application number: 17/664,124
The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK)

Founded in 1963, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) is a forward-looking comprehensive research university with a global vision and a mission to combine tradition with modernity, and to bring together China and the West. CUHK teachers and students hail from all around the world. Four Nobel laureates are associated with the university, and it is the only tertiary institution in Hong Kong with recipients of the Nobel Prize, Turing Award, Fields Medal and Veblen Prize sitting as faculty in residence. CUHK graduates are connected worldwide through an extensive alumni network. CUHK undertakes a wide range of research programmes in many subject areas, and strives to provide scope for all academic staff to undertake consultancy and collaborative projects with industry. 

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