[Scientific] My legs are moving on their own wearing electric leggings.rehabilitation robot bicycle

[Anchor]
It is difficult for a paraplegic or disabled person to move without help from someone.

Researchers in Korea have developed a device that helps them move their legs on their own using electrical stimulation, and it is expected to play an auxiliary role because it is a comfortable material to wear all day like leggings.

This is reporter Park Na-yeon.

[Reporter]

[Lim Hoon-seop / Yonsei University Researcher of Mechanical Engineering]: I thought he wouldn't have been seriously injured, but when I opened my eyes, he was in the intensive care unit of the hospital. The hospital professor told me that I can't walk.]

Due to a car accident that happened three years ago, Lim Hoon-seop was completely paralyzed from the waist down.

Frustration Holds. Now, he has become the first Korean to win a bicycle race in a world competition where he competes for rehabilitation robot technology.

The rehabilitation robot bicycle event is a competition in which a disabled person who cannot move his or her lower body at all completes the 1,960m track alone.

The AI robot bicycle developed by researchers at Yonsei University, Shin Dong-joon, can travel with only the muscles of the disabled without external power such as motors, and the driving force behind this competition is the device in the leggings.Looking inside

leggings, there is a built-in electrical stimulation pad. When this pad stimulates the leg muscles, the legs move themselves.

The researchers used AI technology to analyze the data on which areas stimulated the best effect.

Based on this, it created a signal of muscle contraction, replacing the damaged motor nerves of the disabled.

It is made of soft leggings, so it is comfortable to wear for a long time, and it has excellent rehabilitation functions.

[Shin Dong-joon/Professor of mechanical engineering at Yonsei University] Overall, muscle mass increases and the biorhythm improves. There are many good effects of rehabilitation.

The researchers said they will apply the developed technology not only to the lower body but also to daily activities using the upper body.

In addition, it plans to continue smart mobility research for the elderly and the general public who need muscle assistance, not limited to the disabled.

I'm Park Nayeon of YTN Science.


Video coverage: Kim Young-hwan