KERAAL Project

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement no 601116 as part of the ECHORD++ (The European Coordination Hub for Open Robotics Development) project.

Description

Low back pain is a leading cause disabling people. It particularly affects the elderly, whose proportion in European societies keeps rising, incurring growing concern about healthcare. Assistive technology in general and assistive robotics in particular may help to address the increasing need for healthcare. In particular, it can help people with musculoskeletal conditions that need keeping mobility of joints and increase of muscle force and coordination. In this context, we propose to develop a robot coach for rehabilitation exercises. The goal is to increase the time patients spend exercising, by alleviating the lack of time a physiotherapist can spend monitoring a patient. With this perspective, our project will develop a robot coach capable of demonstrating rehabilitation exercises to patients, watch a patient carry out the exercise and give him feedback so as to improve his performance and encourage him.

Our consortium made up of roboticists and doctors will address both the technological and the medical aspects of this project.

Members

This project requires expertise multiple disciplines. In robotics, the expertise includes robotic hardware, human-robot interaction and robotic learning. The project also relies heavily on rehabilitation expertise. This is why it involves 3 partners who each bring in their expertise: IMT Atlantique, Generation Robots and CHRU Brest. [More details]

Media and press release

If you are journalist interested in the KERAAL project, you can find here some media illustrating the project as well as more information in the press release page.

Publications

The list of scientific publications related to KERAAL project can be found here.