Mohamed Bouri

Biography and current work

Biography

Dr. Mohamed Bouri is a group leader of Rehabilitation and Assistive Robotics in LSRO and lecturer of Robotics and Industrial Robotics. He graduated in Electrical Engineering in 1992 and obtained his PhD degree in 1997 in Industrial Automation at INSA LYON, France. Since 1997, he is at EPFL and is mainly active in the field of robot control, automation and robot design for medical and industrial applications. He is the head of Rehabilitation and Assistive Robotics group since 2005 and has strong references with the development of robotic devices for lower limb rehabilitation : The MotionMaker and WalkTrainer commercialzed by the company Swortec. His ongoing research currently focuses on the development of exoskeletons and the associated control strategies. His main current projects are TWIICE, a lower limb exoskeleton for people with paraplegia, AUTONOMYO, a walk assistance exoskeleton for people with muscle weakness, and the HiBSO, a hip orthosis for elderly.

Main publications

• An Assistive Lower Limb Exoskeleton for People with Neurological Gait Disorders, A. Ortlieb, R. Baud, M. Bouri, H. Bleuler, Int. Conference Rehabilitation Robotics, London, 2017
• TWIICE -- a Lightweight Lower-Limb Exoskeleton for Complete Paraplegics, T. Vouga, R. Baud, J. Fasola, M. Bouri, H. Bleuler, Int. Conference Rehabilitation Robotics, London, 2017
• Brain-actuated gait trainer with visual and proprioceptive feedback. Liu D, Chen W, Lee K, Chavarriaga R, Bouri M, Pei Z, Millan JDR, J Neural Eng, doi: 10.1088/1741-2552/aa7df9, 2017
• In a demanding task, three-handed manipulation is preferred to two-handed manipulation, E Abdi, E Burdet, M Bouri, S Himidan, H Bleuler, Scientific reports of Nature, Vol 6, doi: 10.1038/srep21758, 2016.
• EXiO – A Brain-Controlled Lower Limb Exoskeleton for Rhesus Macaques , T. Vouga, J. Olivier, M. Bouri, K. Z. Zhuang, M. A. Lebedev, M. A. L. Nicolelis, H. Bleuler, IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering, (under press), 2016.
• From gait measurements to design of assistive orthoses for people with neuromuscular diseases, A. Ortlieb · J. Olivier · M. Bouri · H. Bleuler · T. Kuntzer, ICORR, Singapore, 2015.
• Which Perspectives of Using Exoskeletons in Activities for Daily Living, M. Bouri, International Conference on social robots in therapy and education New Friends, Nederland, October 2015.
• Control Strategies for Active Lower Extremity Prosthetics and Orthotics: A Review. M. R. Tucker, J. Olivier, A. Pagel, H. Bleuler, M. Bouri, O. Lambercy, J. Millán, R. Riener, H. Vallery, and R. Gassert, Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation, (Version online), January 2015.
• Mechanisms for Actuated Assistive Hip Orthoses, J. Olivier, A. Ortlieb, M. Bouri, H. Bleuler. Elsevier Journal of Robotics and Autonomous Systems, Online October, 2014.
• The WalkTrainer—A New Generation of Walking Reeducation Device Combining orthosis and Muscle Stimulation, Y. Stauffer, Y. Allemand, M. Bouri, J. Fournier, R. Clavel, P. Métrailler, R. Brodard, and F. Reynard, IEEE Transactions on neural systems and rehabilitation engineering, Vol. 17, No. 1, February 2009

Main Achievements (last 5 years)

Topic 1: Rehabilitation Robotics
• (2013-2014) Hip Ball Screw Orthosis for elderly (HiBSO). This orthotic device assist people when walking by providing a complementary torque to the hip joint. Tests, characterizations and evaluations have been carried out.
• (2016) Autonomyo, a fully actuated exoskeleton for people with Myopathy. This project is carried out in collaboration with the university hospital of canton of Vaud. Autonomyo, with its 3 actuated joints at each leg (2 actuations at the hip and 1 actuation at the knee) assist walking and stabilization when walking for people with muscular weaknesses. Tests are ongoing. A related patent is pending (ref EP16192217.4). www.autonomyo.ch
• (2016) TWIICE, A fully actuated exoskeleton for people with Spinal Cord Injury. TWIICE, with its 2 actuated joints at each leg (1 actuation at the hip and 1 actuation at the knee) totally mobilize the legs when walking. This device is a worldwide lightest device enabling people with SCI to walk, stand and walk and climbing stairs. A related patent is pending (ref EP16188172.7). www.twiice.ch

Topic 2: Robotized Surveys for Astrophysics
• (2013-2016), Contribution to the project DESI (Dark Energy Spectroscopy Instrument) by 1) investigating on the backlash-free positioner 2) development of the position controllers (software and electronics) 3) developing the solution of the collision-free path generation. These 3 requirements and contributions have been successfully achieved. Our group is officially part of the project DESI led by the LBL lab at Berkeley and mainly financed by the department of energy USA.
• (2016) Development of the smallest 2 DOF robot for astrophysics survey. A robot with less than 7mm-diameter has been developed to provide a solution for high density robotized spectrographic surveys. This robot allows the realization of a robotic survey with more than a 10’000 robotic units in less than 1-meter diameter focal plate. This achievement is new and has not been communicated for confidentiality reasons.
• (2015-2016) Development of a 2 degrees of freedom backlash-free robot for astrophysic surveys requiring pitches around 25mm. 10 units have already been realized and characterized with a planar precision around 5 microns. This innovative achievement is carried out in collaboration with the Swiss company Maxon and is financed by the commission for innovation in Switzerland.
• (2016) Implementation of an optical characterization setup to measure tilting and planar precision of 2 dofs micro-positioners for astrophysic surveys. This setup is probably the lone setup providing automated characterization. This achievement is currently driving collaboration between our group and other international groups developing astrophysic surveys.

Topic 3: Miscellaneous (Industrial and Surgical robotics)
• (2012) 5-Axis parallel kinematic robotic device for polishing. This innovative achievement has been carried out in collaboration with the Swiss company Unitechnologies and has been financed by the commission for innovation in Switzerland.
• (2013) Development of a 3DOF direct drive parallel robot for fast pick and place. This achievement has been carried out in collaboration with the company Bosch Packaging Technologies and has been financed by the commission for innovation in Switzerland. The related technology has been patented (WO2012152559)
• (2013-2016) 3-handed manipulation for surgical applications. The relevance of 3 handed manipulations for surgery has been demonstrated. Foot based control strategies have been implemented to manipulate a camera using a parallel robot with 4 degrees of freedom. This definitely validated and demonstrated the feasibility of such an approach to assist surgeons in controlling the camera while having their hands free for manipulating the surgical tools