Kevin Langlois and Joris De Winter of the VUB Brubotics team made the finals of the KUKA Innovation Award 2022. This year, the KUKA Innovation Award is all about medicine and healthcare. Because new technologies are playing an increasingly important role in healthcare and will be virtually indispensable in the future. Researchers, developers and young entrepreneurs from all over the world submitted their concepts for the "Robotics in Healthcare Challenge". An international jury of experts evaluated the concepts and selected our five finalists.
The teams have already received an initial training on the hardware and software and can now put their ideas into reality using an LBR Med provided free of charge and a vision system from the Munich-based company Roboception. KUKA will of course support the finalists with coaching from KUKA expertsthroughout the competition. The final of the Innovation Award will then take place at the MEDICA medical trade fair in November 2022. There, the teams will present their applications to a large audience of experts from industry and research, as well as media representatives and investors. The winning team will also win prize money of €20,000.
Brubotics and rehabilitation
Robots will play an increasingly important role in rehabilitation in the future, as rehabilitation robots can provide frequent and repetitive training as well as ergonomic working conditions for the therapist. New rehabilitation strategies are needed to improve the functional outcomes of robotic therapy. The team from Vrije Universiteit Brussel and imec is addressing these challenges by using the KUKA LBR Med in combination with a soft sensorized physical interface. Using integrated multimodal sensors, the team is able to add additional layers of safety and comfort and capture user intention to develop more flexible rehabilitation robots.