V Bionic

This project is aimed at introducing a modular exoskeletal hand rehabilitation device, ExoHeal. ExoHeal is an exoskeleton aimed at providing rehabilitation to patients with hand stroke/paralysis by effectively retraining and recovering their motor functions. Unlike other hand exoskeletons which use pneumatic actuators, ExoHeal uses high torque metal gear micro servos. This contributes to the overall portability and functionality of the device by being both lightweight and capable of enough torque capacity to open a hand with high flexor tone. The mechanical design of the exoskeleton allows for stimulation of independent movement in each phalanx. ExoHeal utilizes an intuitive rehabilitation routine based on utilizing the various concepts of neuroplasticity and mirror learning to retrain the motor cortex by inducing neuroplastic changes. ExoHeal is an exoskeleton based performing bilateral movement training by mirroring the movement of the working hand in parallel. By performing bilateral movement training, the impaired hand of the patient can recover at a faster rate. This combined with an app that monitors the progress and suggests exercises based on user patterns and those described by the physician makes ExoHeal unique and stand out compared to the already existing hand rehabilitation devices. To be available in multiple languages, The smartphone application is divided into a doctors and patients app. The doctor's app allows the physician to remotely monitor the progress and guide various patients from anywhere around the world. It acts as a means of communication between the doctor and the patient and allows the physician to program the patient’s device to operate as per the user’s condition. The patient’s app was programmed to work based on user feedback. Exercise routines were pre-programmed to activate in accordance with the different stages of the rehabilitation routine. The app works as a guide in the absence of a physician and so it guides the patient throughout the various exercises comprised in the different stages of the rehabilitation process and sends statistical results to the doctor. The device ExoHeal improves the medical rehabilitation process by introducing an affordable paralysis treatment. The rehabilitation routine is capable of accelerating the rate of recovery by approximately 30%. It successfully solved the problems lacking in the already existent rehabilitation devices by being more precise, portable, quick & responsive. Although the device can perform the extension/flexion movement it cannot perform abduction/ adduction movement arising the need for more complex mechanisms to be developed in the future in order to achieve complete 21 Degrees of freedom (DOF) of the hand fingers. The application was able to monitor progress and suggest exercises. In cases of irrecoverable motor loss, the device was found to be capable of being used as a daily driver to partake in routinely tasks. At present, a more complex and lightweight design is being developed to further enhance its capabilities and widening its area of accessibility within the medical industry.

Zain A. Samdani, Founder CEO, 6 years of experience as a roboticist and researcher in Make Real Inc., K.V. Rao Scientific Society, Social Innovation Winner and Mentor at Diamond Challenge, Global Teen Leader/Alumni WAFF (Three Dot Dash), Ashoka Young Changemaker, Featured in Forbes & Google as Young Scientist. Abdullah A. Iqbal, CFO, Mechatronics-Engineer. Founded and scaled 2 disability-based startups. Ramin Udash, CTO Application developer, 2 years of industry experience developing mobile applications. Faria Zubair, Head of Design - Transformed protruding design of the exoskeleton to feel like a second skin. Asfia Jabeen Zubair, Operations Manager, Experienced in working with patients. Hamza Junaid: Extra support team member (Computer Science student) Expert Consultants: - Dr. Bindu Menon, Stroke Specialist, Researcher, Changemaker and Mentor. (India) - Dr. Fawaz Abdulaziz Al Hussain, Researcher, Mentor, Consultant Neurologist & stroke subspecialist (Saudi Arabia) - Dr. Ratna, Scientist, Mentor, K.V. Rao Scientific Society (India) - Farhan khan- Computer Science Engineer, Mentored and volunteered for online free diploma courses, online short courses on Emergency First aid, coding/App development, etc. in pandemic. - Lesley Onstott, Director of projects at Not Impossible Labs, Mentor WAFF (USA) - Zubair Ahmed, Advisor, Projects Manager & Social-Worker (India/KSA). With almost a billion disabled around the world, it's a primary challenge to explore opportunities and innovate to better help those in need. And so we as V Bionic aim to ease the hardships faced by the disabled through the integration of robotic technology in the human body. Inspired by visions of the future, we hope to create a bedrock towards the incorporation of man and machine. V Bionic first saw light in 2015. Since then, through research, trial, and error, I have worked on bionic solutions ranging from bionic eye tracking, bionic hands for amputees to helping patients with paralysis. Our projects have been divided into multiple segments for each of the members to work on and by doing so V Bionic is able to deal with the most difficult parts of the projects early on. Making a difference in the lives of those in need has been and always will be our primary goal. Recently we've started to integrate our devices with apps to better help the user navigate. We're still learning and exploring new ideas to develop better apps. We focus on key elements of our projects that are: user feedback, Improving upon the competition and extensive testing. This allows us further improve our devices and create better prototypes. Throughout the years our projects have seen many iterations. Some of them were even recognized at the national and international level, allowing us to gain feedback from various demographics and contribute to the progress of our projects. Along the way, we were faced with many challenges, some of which even took months to solve. But its by facing these challenges we have grown. Grown to calmly counter these so-called bugs by looking out of the box. Our journey has taught us on how a simple device can so greatly change the lives of others. The smiles and joy it has brought and the ones yet to bring gives purpose to our work. Knowing that we have what it takes to instill a better change in the world gives meaning to our existence. V Bionic is not just a team it's a Family, who cares to help families to overcome the difficulties of lives by simple means through the technology.