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emovo care – bring movement home

Editorial

The project management is responsible for the content of the information provided.

Cooperation

This project, funded by Gebert Rüf Stiftung, is supported by the following project partners: EPFL BioRob Laboratory; CHUV; Hôpital du Valais Sion; University of Essex and Azienda sanitaria dell'Alto Adige/Südtiroler Sanitätsbetrieb.

Project data

  • Project no: GRS-075/19 
  • Amount of funding: CHF 150'000 
  • Approved: 30.10.2019 
  • Duration: 01.2020 - 12.2021 
  • Area of activity:  InnoBooster, seit 2018

Project management

Project description

Hand impairments are among the most common consequences of neurological conditions such as cerebrovascular accidents, spinal cord injuries and cerebral palsies. Due to the fundamental role that our hands play in, deficits in hand functions (e.g. from stroke or spinal cord injury) drastically reduce our ability to perform even simple tasks, such as preparing and eating a meal. Current solutions aimed at treating and assisting hand function fail to restore grasping, which results in more than 50 M people worldwide who typically rely on caregivers to live.
Emovo Care aims to bring movement home for people with hand motor impairments by offering a portable orthosis that can both actively open and close the hand.

What is special about the project?

Emovo Care’s device is based on patent-pending artificial tendons, developed during a PhD at the Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), which have the unique competitive advantage of actively opening and closing the hand of the user in a portable manner. This is particularly important for hemiparetic stroke patients who typically suffer from a clenched fist due to mild to moderate spasticity. Furthermore, the device was specifically designed for independent use for persons with hemiparesis and can be worn on and off using only one hand. Lastly, the device is portable and lightweight, which makes it an ideal tool to provide hand movement home.

Status/Results

Emovo Care SA is a medical device company (incorporated in June 2020) developing accessible robotic devices to bring movement home for people with motor impairments. The company is a spin-off from PhD research conducted at EPFL and the official project to commercialize the prototype YAGO (Your Assistive Grasp Orthosis) started in January 2019. In the fall of 2019, Gerbert Rüf Stiftung funded the project to implement and certify a Quality Management System (QMS), in order to support the transfer of technology to a commercial CE-marked medical device and prepare for sales to clinics. Within the project period, the project has secured an additional CHF600k in funding, secured a first 5 figure paid partnership, submitted a second patent, and implemented and certified its ISO 13485 QMS. The next milestones are to obtain the CE mark of the first product, raise a CHF 1M equity round, and expand the team to bring movement home for people with motor impairments.

Publications

Randazzo et al. (2018). Mano: A wearable hand exoskeleton for activities of daily living and neurorehabilitation. IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters

Media

Instant T: Quand l’innovation gagne sur le handicap, RTS, 20.05.2019
Feedback enhances brainwave control of a novel hand-exoskeleton, EFPL News, 22.01.2018
also covered by Reuters, EurekAlert, Science et Vie, SWI swissinfo, 24 heures, RTS Couleur 3, Netzwoche, Blick and others

Links

Persons involved in the project

Iselin Frøybu, Co-project lead, COO Emovo Care SA
Luca Randazzo, Co-project lead, CEO Emovo Care SA
Auke Ijspeert

Last update to this project presentation  15.11.2023