Human robotics lab

available equipment

• A split-belt treadmill with integrated force plates and force sensors, to capture both vertical and horizontal forces during walking
• A 10-camera VICON motion capture system
• Psycho-physiological measurement tools (EEG, EMG, IMUs, respiratory rate and flow, electrodermal activity, cutaneous temperature…)
• Climate and altitude chambers
• Mock-up working space/testing racks
• Metabolic expense or reduction, estimation for a given task.
• Baxter and Franka cobot
• Several industrial exoskeletons
• Industrial Exoskeleton test rack
• Research prototypes including BIOMOT and MIRAD (lower body exoskeletons for medical purposes), SPEXOR and EXO4WORK (upper body exoskeletons for industrial purposes).
• Camera system
• AR (Hololens) and VR systems

This setup allows us to measure relevant biomechanical aspects of:

• human motion, kinematically and dynamically
• human physiology
• human-robot interaction

Furthermore it provides us with empirical and assessment data for the behaviour of exoskeleton devices. We can even use this data to estimate the metabolic expense or reduction for a given task.

Other options are:

• A subject’s driven treadmill where the user can walk at his/her own pace and the machine adapts its velocity to the user (start/stop/accelerate/decelerate…)
• Measure ergonomics during human-cobot interaction using forceplate, motion capture system and physiological measurements
• Testing of physical and mental fatigue in industrial settings by combining EEG and EMG with subjective questionnaires
• The Vicon (movement analysis tool) is also used in projects requiring robots to have attitude awareness in a calibrated volume