BioRob 24

This full-day workshop will explore the current and future use of human digital twins for clinical application and human-robot interaction and how to unlock their potential. While experimental studies are crucial, progress is naturally slow due to medical device regulations and ethical considerations. This limits the development of new methods with clinical applications in rehabilitation as well as the design of novel assistive devices and controllers. New open-source and proprietary biomechanical simulation frameworks are actively developed with improved model complexity, movement versatility, and computational efficiency and an ever-increasing community spanning different research and application fields. 

This workshop will give a voice to experts in assistive robotics, clinical rehabilitation, biomechanics, and industry. The workshop will be organized as a series of invited talks and panel discussions. It integrates perspectives from clinical application, robotics and musculoskeletal modeling, featuring speakers who bring diverse insights to the table. The workshop will aim to answer if human digital twin for human-machine simulation and clinical use is currently good enough to make an impact on reality.

Further, a poster session, Demo and Tutorials (MyoSuite, Theia Makerless) will be part of the workshop.

Sunday 1st September

9h Intro

9h05 Talk 1 - Daniel Heitzmann - "Challenges utilizing musculoskeletal modelling in a clinical setting: part 1"

9h30 Talk 2 - Firooz Salami - "Challenges utilizing musculoskeletal modelling in a clinical setting: part 2"

9h55 Poster Pitch

10h Posters

10h30 Break

11h Talk 3 - Matthias Hösl 

11h25 Talk 4 - Anne Koelewijn - "Rapid and accessible personalisation of musculoskeletal model"

Repeatedly, it has been shown that generic musculoskeletal models, only scaled to participant height and weight are not accurate enough for individual movement analysis or predictions. We expect that it is necessary to perform more detailed model personalization for that. However, it is also not feasible to perform an image-based personalization, for example through magnetic resonance imaging, for each individual participant due to the high costs and time required. Therefore, we are currently exploring machine learning-based approaches for personalization that rely on data that can be measured in large cohorts. In this talk, I will present the different approaches that we are currently exploring and show some preliminary results. 

11h45 Panel discussion 1 - moderated by Daniel Haeufle & Kim Peper - Monitoring in Clinical Settings: clinical application 

12h20  MyoSuite Teaser 

12h30 Lunch Break 

13h00 MyoSuite & MyoChallenge Clinics

14h00 Prophysics Demo - Theia Makerless

14h15 Intro

14h20 Talk 5 - Friedl de Groote - "Predicting human movement based on neuro-musculoskeletal models – how to go from dream to reality?"

Designing assistive devices that effectively enhance human locomotion is hard because of our limited ability to predict how the human neuro-musculoskeletal system interacts with such devices. The design of assistive devices has therefore largely relied on iterative hardware prototyping and experimental assessment. However, this approach is expensive and time consuming. It would be great if we could use computer simulations of assisted walking to accelerate the design process but current simulation frameworks might not yet be sufficiently accurate for computer-aided design of assistive devices. In this talk, I will discuss challenges and future directions in model-based prediction of human movement.

14h45 Talk 6 - Sridar Saivimal - "Neuromusculoskeletal modelling for occupational exosuits and prosthesis and some industry perspectives"

15h10 Posters

15h30 Break

16h Talk 7 - Robert Riener - "Evolution of Robot-Patient-Therapist Interaction in Rehabilitation"

Robots can restore movement abilities of upper and lower limbs. As training devices, they can promote neurorehabilitation after neurological injuries such as spinal cord injury (SCI), traumatic brain injury or stroke. As assistive devices, they can support patients or elders with gait impairments in daily life situations. This talk will present the first rehabilitation devices that were controlled by human operators before the first open-loop and closed-loop devices were developed. Then, the talk will highlight new intention detection strategies, patient-cooperative controllers, and controllers that even include the mechanical interactions of the therapist. It concludes with a visionary outlook of future rehabilitation technologies. 

16h25 Panel discussion 2 - moderated by Guillaume Durandau

17h Bretzel and Beer

Panel Discussion 1: Monitoring in Clinical Settings: clinical application

Panel Discussion 2: Robotic and Digital twin: toward real health solutions?

A MyoSuite and MyoChallenge Clinic will be available from 13h00 to 14h00 to help you resolve all your MyoSuite or MyoChallenge difficulties. 

For new user, don't forget to install and run the tutorial before the clinic.

Come meet our experts:

New, recently published, as well as results currently under review can be submitted.  We especially welcome early as well as negative results, provided the submission shares something interesting that the community can benefit from.

• Format: Submissions to the workshop can be made in the form of a 1 page abstract or a poster (max dimension 24W x 36H inches) or as a Video of your demo, that you want to show. Submission must be in the form of a pdf. Supporting video (max 3 minutes) can also be provided with the submission in the form of a publically hosted link (YouTube, etc).

• Instructions: Send your submissions to Kim Peper (kim.peper@tum.de) with the following subject lines: [BioRob24:<your-submission-title> <your-name>]. Add the following details in the body.

  • Title: <poster/demo title>

  • Authors: <List of all authors in order and their affiliations>

  • Demo: <Mark if you like to bring a demo along with your poster>

  • Video: <link to the supporting video>

  • Status:  <Mark if this is a new result/ under submission/ negative result>

  • Mics: <anything else you would like us to know>

Attach your abstract/ poster/ video / video of the demo to the email. Submission must be made by the corresponding/presenting author.  Co-authors can be CCed to your email to receive all communications.

• Deadline: 15th August anywhere on earth

Notification: Submission decisions will be made available as soon as reviews are available. We expect to send all notifications by 23rd August. All communications/ notifications will be sent as a response to the submission email. Please ensure that all emails (including CCed) remain active. 

Kim Kristin Peper (TU München, Germany)

Guillaume Durandau (McGill University and Jewish Rehabilitation hospital, Canada)

Daniel Haufle (Heidelberg University, Germany)

Vikash Kumar (Carnegie Mellon University, USA)

Seungmoon Song (Northeastern University, USA)

Pierre Schumacher (Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, Germany)

Vittorio Caggiano (MyoLab Inc., USA)