Future Night: Cheng Hong, Director of the Robotics Research Center at UESTC, on How New Technologies Can Change Lives

Helping people with paralysis “stand up and walk well” has long been the goal of Cheng Hong, Director of the Robotics Research Center at UESTC and Director of the Engineering Research Center for Human-Machine Intelligent Technology and Systems under the Ministry of Education.

At the “Future Night: Let the Light of Technology Illuminate Cyber Civilization” event on August 27, Cheng shared the story of his team and Huang Man, a police officer from Mianyang. In 2018, Cheng’s team met Huang, a recipient of a first-class merit award from the Ministry of Public Security. Due to high-level paraplegia, she had lost sensation below the neck for 12 years. Facing this brave officer who had endured severe pain, Cheng’s team decided to take on the challenge of applying brain-electrical and muscle-electrical signal fusion technology to an exoskeleton robot to help her stand again.

Cheng explained that exoskeleton robots serve two main purposes. For people who need rehabilitation assistance, the machine drives joint movement; for others, the robot follows the user’s natural movement. Huang’s system can assist her in walking with a bionic gait, support rehabilitation training, and help her climb stairs. A helmet detects her neural signals, which are transmitted to the exoskeleton, allowing the robot to respond to her intention to stand and walk.

The technology was extremely difficult to develop, with a very low chance of success. After countless trials and refinements, Cheng’s team finally developed an exoskeleton system suitable for Huang. When she stood again after 12 years and took one step after another, the scene deeply moved everyone present.

Cheng said new technologies should change people’s lifestyles and ways of thinking, and bring a better life. His team’s exoskeleton robots have been used in more than 100 hospitals. He hopes they will be applied in more clinical treatment scenarios and even help disabled elderly people achieve true “human-machine dancing.”

Original link: https://www.news.cn/tech/20240828/1cb9c93fe48f4ebfbe2bf1d345293549/c.html