Rise, Stride, Triumph: Exoskeleton to Help People with Paraplegia

Stretched across the room is a thick steel cable; below it, a carpet of soft foam mats. Before long, a person with paraplegia will test TU Berlin's robotic exoskeleton and practice walking over the padded path, initially secured with a rope. Then in October, it's off to the CYBATHLON, where para-athletes from all over the world will compete in a race with different tasks. The pilots, who are fully paralyzed in both legs, will tackle a number of scenarios while wearing an exoskeleton. But before all that happens, the students in the RISE team have their hands full developing their one.

RISE stands for "Research and Innovation in Student Exoskeleton Development," and the name says it all: Together with SEI, an initiative for socially committed engineering students, the Chair of Medical Engineering at TU Berlin launched RISE as an innovative and practice-oriented module at the University. RISE aims to help people with spinal cord injuries to stand upright and walk, thus improving their autonomy in everyday life. "It's great to be part of the RISE project, because it really is about making a difference: We want to help people achieve their ambition of walking again and get more out of everyday life," says Nicola Dobler, one of the students involved. In sequential work packages - including design, development, production, and testing - students from far-reaching disciplines, such as electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, computer science, biomedical engineering, human factors, and industrial engineering and management, have spent the last three semesters constructing a competitive exoskeleton. It takes the form of a wearable device similar to a powered medical splint that is strapped around the wearer's abdomen.