In the SWAG project, RRD is working with 12 other partners from across Europe to develop a fully soft, powered exosuit that will support hip, knee and ankle: Soft Wearable Assistive Garment. It has four different use cases:
- Motion assistance for people with stroke or traumatic brain injury
- Occupational enhancement for workers
- Wellness training for improving fitness
- Haptics for immersive virtual reality during training
The SWAG project is a multidisciplinary initiative, focusing on the development of lower limb soft robotics to empower the lower body and core. The project aims to replace traditional rigid materials found in exoskeletons with high-strength, inflatable fabrics and sensing films to create smart, human-assistive, soft and lightweight garments. The envisioned exosuits will ensure user comfort and safety, while versatile in conditions to be used in, due to their garment-like design.
Tasks Roessingh
RRD coordinates the work package ‘User engagement and field trials’, which evolves around an iterative approach of testing subsequent versions of prototypes with end-users and providing feedback about end-user input to technical work packages for further development. This amounts to a functional and usable exosuit that will undergo physical tests with users in (simulated) real life tasks for each use case, in the last year of the 4-year project. RRD takes the lead in providing the general approach for user engagement and works closely with the partners leading the use cases to employ this approach with their use case. The use case that RRD leads is motion assistance for people with acquired brain injury, aiming towards an exosuit that will support patients during everyday tasks.
Project duration
November 1, 2023 - October 31, 2027
Partners
13 partners from 7 European countries collaborate in SWAG:
- Tech Hive Labs (Greece)
- Hellenic Mediterranean University (Greece)
- Bendabl (Greece)
- Roessingh, Center for Rehabilitation (Netherlands)
- University of Twente (Netherlands)
- Technical University Munich (Germany)
- Scuola Superiore di Studi Unversitari e di perfezionamento S Anna (Italy)
- IUVO SRL (Italy)
- Fundacio Eurecat (Spain)
- Institut Jozef Stefan (Slovenia)
- University of Hertfordshire Higher Education Corporation (United Kingdom)
- Brunel University London (United Kingdom)
- Imperial College of Science Technology and Medicine (United Kingdom)
Grantor
Horizon Europe