Our project BENCH, which is coordinated by our head of our lab Dr. Leonardo Gizzi, is a “Biomechanical tEsting platform for sit-to-staNd assessment with an instrumented CHair”. In collaboration with the University of Rome and Dublin we do research on sit-to-stand and stand-to-sit motions. BENCH is part of the FSTP1 call of the wider EU funded project EUROBENCH.
Due to the fact that everyday life is becoming increasingly influenced by robots, the EUROBENCH project has set as goal to be the first benchmarking framework for robotics in Europe. Partner of this framework, for example companies or researchers, can test, improve and develop performances of robots. The project is funded by the European Union and focuses on bipedal robotic technologies in order to put Europe in the role as a pioneer of the evaluation of robotic systems.
Within the BENCH project a testbed; consisting in the prototype of an instrumented chair; was developed. Because of the use of multimodal sensors, a complete biomechanical/neuromechanical analysis is possible. In opposite to former studies on this topic, our project includes the acquisition and analysis of a biomechanical/neuromechanical dataset. This dataset combines data recorded from healthy individuals and data that is recorded while simulating a human/exoskeleton system. Until today, no other integrated data system exists in this kind of research.
The sit-to-stand gesture is an important movement for assessing dynamic balance and lower limb coordination. Therefore, this project has a significant impact on the development of clinical devices.
The results of this project could be transformed into clinical products, which could be used in hospitals, medical research laboratories and robot manufacturing companies.
