Webinar 2 in the Seminar on Robotics for rehabilitation and elderly care seminar series

By Prof Ashish D. Deshpande, Associate Professor, University of Texas at Austin, USA on 29 January 2021

Abstract: Stroke is a leading cause of disability in the US and around the world, and the current rehabilitation treatments are costly, labor-intensive and insufficient, leaving millions of stroke survivors with life altering disabilities. Deshpande’s group has built a novel robot, called Harmony Exoskeleton, for upper-body rehabilitation. Fundamental Ashish D. Deshpande is passionate about helping stroke patients recover from their disabilities and he believes robots could serve as important tools in the recovery process. He is a faculty member in Mechanical Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin, where he directs the ReNeu Robotics Lab. His work focuses on the study of human system and design of robotic systems toward the goals accelerating recovery after a neurological injury (e.g. stroke and spinal cord injury), improving the quality of lives of those living disabilities (e.g. amputation) and enhancing lives and productivity of workers, soldiers and astronauts. Specifically, his group has designed two novel exoskeletons for delivering engaging and subject-specific training for neuro-recovery of upper-body movements after stroke and spinal cord injury. Dr Deshpande is a co-founder of Harmonic Bionics whose mission is to improve rehabilitation outcomes for stroke patients.

The recording is available below: