UESTC: Breakthroughs in Exoskeleton Robot Technology Open a New Path for Rehabilitation Medicine

Amid Sichuan’s efforts to deepen science and technology system reform and promote the transformation of research achievements, the exoskeleton robot developed by Professor Cheng Hong’s team at UESTC has become a benchmark case in the reform of ownership of job-related scientific and technological achievements. The result has not only filled a domestic technical gap in intelligent rehabilitation equipment, but also broken the monopoly of foreign products in the high-end rehabilitation robot market, injecting strong momentum into the independent and high-quality development of China’s medical rehabilitation industry chain.

China has a large population of people with disabilities, and patients with spinal cord injuries and strokes have urgent rehabilitation needs. Traditional rehabilitation equipment often suffers from low intelligence, insufficient personalized adaptation, and limited efficiency. To address these challenges, Cheng’s team focused on clinical pain points and spent eight years tackling key technologies, ultimately developing an exoskeleton robot with fully independent intellectual property rights.

The robot has achieved internationally leading technical performance. It features millimeter-level gait control accuracy, can precisely match different patients’ movement needs, and reduces energy consumption by 40% compared with similar foreign products. The team has obtained more than 300 invention patent authorizations, over 60 software copyrights, and more than 30 trademarks, and has led the formulation of two industry standards.

The team also built clinical trial bases with institutions including the Chinese PLA General Hospital, the Rehabilitation Medicine Center of West China Hospital, and the 416 Hospital. Clinical tests involving 120 patients with paraplegia verified the product’s safety and effectiveness. In 2018, it received one of China’s first CFDA certifications in its field and became Sichuan’s first approved innovative medical device.

So far, the exoskeleton robot has been applied in more than 500 medical institutions, including West China Hospital of Sichuan University, CGN 416 Hospital, and Beijing Tiantan Hospital affiliated with Capital Medical University. It has benefited over 50,000 patients, helping many people with paraplegia stand and walk again, while shortening average rehabilitation training cycles by 60% and greatly reducing the rehabilitation burden on families and society.

Next, Cheng’s team will work with the Nursing Research Institute of West China Hospital to build a rehabilitation and elderly-care robot R&D center. Led by the UESTC Robotics Center, the team will also collaborate with UESTC’s schools of mechanical and electrical engineering and automation to develop the next generation of brain-computer intelligent exoskeleton robots, which are currently in the certification stage. The team will also develop lightweight assistive rehabilitation devices for older adults and explore a milestone-based income distribution model to sustain innovation.