Mechatronic ankle foot orthoses (MAFOs) have been proposed as a means for improving gait assistance and rehabilitation in neurologically impaired individuals and as a tool for augmenting gait functions in healthy individuals. Given the impact that stroke-related gait impairments have on society, with about 1 million people affected every year, and the potential that human augmentation can have in improving quality of life and in optimizing work-force effectiveness and ergonomics, the large-scale deployment of MAFOs is expected to bring substantial societal impact. However, the solutions proposed in the scientific literature in the past 20 years have yet to fully translate into commercial products targeting either the assistive technology or human augmentation markets. The successful translation of devices into commercial products depends not only on the impact they have on the users but also on their commercial viability. For this, it is important to consider, during the development of a MAFO, the requirements of all stakeholders and all associate business-related factors. These are aspects of device development that are commonly not covered in the scientific setting and are not usually part of the traditional academic PhD training of researcher in this field. These limitations hamper the commercial potential of solutions that may benefit the clinical and general populations and limits the transferability of newly trained researchers between academic research and industry R&D.

The SmartANKLE project will train a new generation of highly skilled individuals with the ability to develop and bring forward biomechatronic technology for an effective translation from the workbench to the fruition by the general public. In SmartANKLE we aim to address these translational challenges in a holistic and sustainable way, by building a training network around the overall objective of bringing the Mechatronic Ankle-Foot Orthosis concept into the market.

SmartANKLE aims at surpassing the current limitations in the design and development of MAFOs by proposing not a single device, but a modular platform that can be shaped depending on the needs of each user. The aim is to develop a system that can be assembled in various configurations for obtaining different “smart” mechanized ankle foot orthoses (SMAFOs) in an agile way and depending on the users and the intended application. The SmartANKLE platform will provide, through the work of the Doctoral Candidates (DCs), modular solutions for developing SMAFOs in terms of design, actuation, and control with focus on three applications: assistance of stroke survivors, sport training after injury, and human augmentation. The main scientific objective of the project is that of harnessing the potential of SMAFOs for deploying benefits to different domains (e.g. assistive, physical, business benefits). This will de-risk the SMAFO technology and develop a prototype platform with sufficient maturity level to be taken for product development.