Abu Dhabi robotics convention showcases app-controlled exoskeleton

Cutting-edge technology on show could revolutionise disability care

Nour Eldin demonstrates his leg support exoskeleton. Antonie Robertson/The National

Researchers, industry experts and students have gathered at the International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems in Abu Dhabi's National Exhibition Centre this week to showcase and examine technology that has the potential to change the future.

Among the highlights was a robot that can get into spaces unreachable by humans in Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant, an app-controlled exoskeleton that can help people with walking disabilities, and a sustainable bin that can separate plastic from metal and other materials.

Some 3,500 prototype papers were submitted and 4,000 students are expected to visit the conference before it closes on Friday. Established in 1988, it is one of the largest and most important robotics research conferences.

"Abu Dhabi is rapidly growing and integrating nature with technology. That's very important for us," Jorge Dias, director of the Centre for Autonomous Robotic Systems at Khalifa University, said as he opened the conference on Monday.

With expectations high, The National headed down to check out the latest innovations.

Walking with an app

An exoskeleton was on display with a screen next to it. It can be attached to the leg and then commanded through an app to help an individual walk, sit or stand. It can be used to assist those in rehabilitation, recovering from an injury, while also easing movement for the disabled.

"It is designed to assist patients in performing some rehabilitation exercises. It helps in assisting the patients to extend their knee and contract their knee and perform walking exercises," Nour Eldin, a researcher at Khalifa University, told The National.

"There is a user-friendly interface and you can choose the type of exercise you want to perform, whether the performance required is full or partial. It assists patients with walking disabilities generally, with different designs based on the patient's needs."

The product, powered by batteries that should be changed weekly, is a prototype and still in its research and development phase. Its projected launch date and cost remain to be confirmed.

Smart waste bins

Due to struggles in sorting waste to recycle, Noah Yohannes developed the Intellibin, a bin that can place rubbish in different containers.

"Whenever waste is placed on the platform here, it takes a picture of it and then classifies it. Once the waste is classified, it's disposed into the appropriate waste bin," Mr Yohannes told The National.

"The main goal we are trying to tackle is we have a lot of sustainability practices right now, but we are lacking the bottom-up practices where we don't separate waste at its source.

"So this tackles the waste segregation, because instead of having waste collected from all over and then trying to separate it later, we are trying to have a segregated waste so that it can be recycled and where the waste that cannot be recycled can be disposed as well."

The product remains in its prototype phase, with the Intellibin team working on making it smaller before it is touted as sellable to consumers.

Hand-in-hand

Johannes Braumann, co-founder of Robots in Architecture, developed a co-bot that can work together with architects.

Mr Braumann explained that the architect can use the hand to choose certain locations for the robot to operate and then, later on, the robot can carry out those tasks autonomously.

"So those are collaborative co-bots, collaborative robots. That means that we can, for example, control them by hand," he said.

"This is used in industry very frequently. The advantage of this kind of robot is that it's quicker to programme, because you don't need to move them around by pushing buttons, but you can just take it, put it to a position, save the position, save the next position, and then you can very quickly tell the robot what to do."

3D-printed houbara

Khalifa University developed a houbara bot to monitor the endangered local bird. This is not the first version but ever since the endeavour started, many changes had to be made to be able to transport it. It is now being used in the UAE, US, Morocco, Kazakhstan and Pakistan.

"We have hand-printed these textures that look like the natural hubba, and then we have our artificial intelligence that is embedded inside these platforms," said Dr Lyes Saad, a postdoctoral fellow in the mechanical engineering department at Khalifa University.

"So inside it has a PC, for example, it can take the images, the video recording from the cameras, microphones and processes through the computing systems that are inside," he said.

Watch: How robotics can save the houbara