Back to all Robotic resistance From: IEEE Xplore - 21-24 August 2022 Bionic Power Staff Writer In recent years, there has been a growing interest in creating wearable robotic exoskeletons for children, especially those with conditions like cerebral palsy (CP). The Agilik smart orthosis is one of these pediatric devices. These exoskeletons hold the promise of improving various aspects of walking, such as step length, walking speed, and muscle activity. This is crucial for children with CP because they often experience difficulties with walking as they grow, and current treatmen ..read more

Dr. Gualtiero Guadagni is the CEO of Bionic Power. We put a few questions to him about  future products and expanded markets for the Agilik. Why did Bionic Power decide to focus on the pediatric market, which is typically considered a niche characterized by small numbers and higher regulatory burden? GG: The first version of the Agilik is intended to help pediatric patients with crouch gait to walk better and more efficiently. (Crouch gait affects as many as 80 percent of all children with cerebral palsy; and although crouch gait afflicts others as well, kids and adults with cerebral ..read more

For the last couple of years, Bionic Power has been working closely with Dr. Thomas Bulea, a tenure track investigator in the Functional & Applied Biomechanics section of the Rehabilitation Medicine Department at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center (NIH CC) in Bethesda, Maryland. Over the last few years, Dr. Bulea’s research has focused on the development of pediatric exoskeletons for children with cerebral palsy, spina bifida, and muscular dystrophy. And earlier this spring, Dr. Bulea presented virtually to orthopedic surgeons, physios, and foundations about the work he ..read more

What’s been the evolution of the Agilik—from birth to now? The Agilik has two parents, you might say. One is the work in exoskeletons that Bionic Power has done for the military since 2008, beginning with an energy-harvesting brace that takes advantage of inefficiencies in a normal gait to generate electricity with minimal metabolic effort. To create the harvester we had to develop a lightweight motor/generator, the strapping system, the electronics to control it all, and the lightweight shells. All of this went into the Agilik. The other parent was the gait state machine (GSM) that Dr. Tho ..read more

If you’re someone with crouch gait from cerebral palsy or spina bifida or some other knee-extension-deficiency disorder, or you’re the parent of a child with crouch gait, you’re probably already familiar with orthotic devices. Ours – the Agilik – is different and we’d like to share more about our ongoing and planned clinical trials. Who knows? Maybe you’ll want to apply to participate in one of them! But before we tell you more about our crouch gait trials, one of which we’ve had going since 2019 with the National Institutes of Health, it’s important to understand what a clinical trial is ..read more

Dr. Gualtiero Guadagni is the CEO of Bionic Power. We put a few questions to him about  future products and expanded markets for the Agilik. Why did Bionic Power decide to focus on the pediatric market, which is typically considered a niche characterized by small numbers and higher regulatory burden? GG: The first version of the Agilik is intended to help pediatric patients with crouch gait to walk better and more efficiently. (Crouch gait affects as many as 80 percent of all children with cerebral palsy; and although crouch gait afflicts others as well, kids and adults with cerebral ..read more

Crouch gait—reducing it, correcting it—is one of our primary goals at Bionic Power. The Agilik, our smart orthotic device, has been designed to curtail and correct crouch gait, a common disorder among people with cerebral palsy (CP), spina bifida, and other knee-extension-deficiency disorders. Crouch gait is clinically described as excessive ankle dorsiflexion and excessive knee and hip flexion during the stance phase. It is an inefficient walking gait that makes walking more tiring. Crouch gait has various causes: growth spurts (when muscles cannot keep up with rapidly increasing weight ..read more

For the last couple of years, Bionic Power has been working closely with Dr. Thomas Bulea, a tenure track investigator in the Functional & Applied Biomechanics section of the Rehabilitation Medicine Department at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center (NIH CC) in Bethesda, Maryland. Over the last few years, Dr. Bulea’s research has focused on the development of pediatric exoskeletons for children with cerebral palsy, spina bifida, and muscular dystrophy. And earlier this spring, Dr. Bulea presented virtually to orthopedic surgeons, physios, and foundations about the work he ..read more