A 77-year-old stroke patient Zheng Guirong was pleasantly surprised to find that she was able to regain control and kick with her paralyzed left leg which has been paralyzed for eight months. With the help of a robot developed by Tianjin University (TJU), she said, “as soon as I thought about using my leg, my leg lifted.”
On August 20, 2015, TJU launched the “Divine II” Mind-controlled Artificial Neural Rehabilitation Robot which has commenced clinical trials at the Yantai Hill Hospital in Shandong Province. In addition to the patient Zheng Guirong, another stroke patient 50-year-old Li Mengxiang lifted his wrist for the first time in the past 15 months.
“Divine I”, predecessor of “Divine II”, was launched a year ago after ten years of development. It has been named by the Chinese Observer network as one of the “2014 Top Ten Scientific and Technological Achievements that has shaped the Future”. Up to now, “Divine I” has completed over 100 clinical trials at numerous certified “AAA” hospitals. Patients from eleven to eighty three years of age have used the robot with striking results. One hemiplegic patient who suffered from a stroke for eleven years was able to write his name with his paralyzed right hand after three months of rehabilitation and the help of “Divine I”.
"Divine II" is a mind-controlled artificial neural robot that can compute and analyze the activation and plasticity of the brain, synchronizing the cerebral cortex with the muscular activity. It also builds a compact loop of “brain-computer-muscle” artificial neural information. Through repeatedly strengthening this normal pathway from the brain to the muscle group, the robot can effectively facilitate the recovery process of the disabled reflex arc, making use of neural plasticity.
Compared to “Divine I”, "Divine II" has achieved major breakthroughs in a series of key clinical technologies. According to Professor Ming Dong, project director and professor from TJU’s School of Precision Instrument and Opto-electronics Engineering, when compared to “Divine I”, “Divine II” has changed significantly in kernel technology, sensory modes, software designs, and applications. As to the key part of the decoding and information modeling of the state of the brain, “Divine II” innovatively designs models that can automatically update with high stability, and addresses poor universality and the varying problems of the patients.
This innovation enables the model parameters of the robot’s system to constantly optimize and update with data accumulation of a patient conducted during the process of the human-computer interaction, and mixes the data of the interference pattern with the basic tasks resting state in the modeling process. This effectively restrains the trigger rates of system errors caused by external environmental factors and psychology of the patients. It significantly improves the reliability and accuracy of the system.
In addition, “Divine II” has adopted the "Internet +" technology, combining the usage of both online and offline applications. With this technology, it could in real-time collect the information of the patients’ multilead electroencephalogram (EEG) which could be transmitted through networks from the Southern Branch of the Yantai Hill Hospital in Shandong to the data center of the Neural Engineering & Rehabilitation Lab of Tianjin University (TUNERL) After remote data decoding and processing, the command parameters are transmitted to the robot’s terminal at the hospital. The information is used for rehabilitation and treatment, creating a new pattern of big data of medical treatment that is stored remotely. At the same time, the sensory modes of the wireless water electrodes of the system simplified the clinical operation.
Through the integration of software and hardware, the clinical rehabilitation intelligence service system with multiple functions including the archiving of information, evaluation of the diagnosis, rehabilitation exercises, and data transmission was formed. Auxiliary diagnosis of associated diseases such as post stroke depression was expanded, and online pathological examination and screening could thus be performed.
The ‘Divine’ series has a cluster of independent intellectual property rights, such as 59 nationally-authorized patents for invention and one software copyright. In the plan outlined by Professor Ming, “In the future, we will try to integrate more advanced technologies such as virtual reality, transcranial magnetic stimulation, and robotic exoskeleton, so as to make a number of more efficient, interesting, and vivid rehabilitation exercises for the paralyzed patients”, he said.
Yantai Hill Hospital has been a strategic collaborative partner of Tianjin University. “Tianjin University Strategic Cooperation Hospital Alliance Program” initiated in 2014 is a milestone for the development of related disciplines. This indicates that Tianjin University’s level of medicine and engineering has reached a new high. Medical science has been included in TJU’s overall disciplinary arrangements and the construction system. TJU’s latest achievements in scientific research in medicine and health fields have produced positive results at clinical institutions in Tianjin as well as around China.
With “Tianjin University Strategic Cooperation Hospital Alliance Program”, Tianjin University has accelerated the progress of the long-term development of cross-technology between medicine and engineering. Tianjin University and its hospitals strategically collaborates and will jointly train talents and establish long-term communication to mutually provide support in technology, staffing, funds, and equipment.
