Project MARCH: Empowering Mobility

Blog by Project March

Eurocircuits & Project MARCH

We see the ability to walk on two feet as something completely normal, but it is actually quite special that we can do this. When the spinal cord is injured, this ability is often lost, resulting in paraplegia and significant lifestyle changes, including the need for a wheelchair. The members of Project MARCH have the vision to improve the quality of life of people with paraplegia by pushing the boundaries of exoskeleton technology.

Project MARCH

Project MARCH consists of 28 dedicated students who pause their studies for a year to develop a motorized robotic suit, or exoskeleton, that enables people with paraplegia to stand and walk again.

We work in close collaboration with our pilot, Daan, who is the user of the exoskeleton. Since we believe that co-creation with the user is a crucial element in making the exoskeleton a success, his feedback is the only way to ensure that the technology meets the practical needs of daily life.

Exoskeleton Development

In the current iteration, known as MARCH IX, the focus is on competing in the CYBATHLON 2024, a competition that includes navigating ten challenging obstacles that are based on daily life tasks. To complete these ten obstacles, the team has made several advancements with respect to previous teams:

• New AIE joint: the addition of the AIE joint in the ankle allows for inversion and eversion movements, which gives a lot of stability during movements where the feet are angled to the side.
• MDrive: this is a self-made motor controller and a combination of the ODrive and DieBo, designed to enhance motor control and data collection from sensors.
• Weight Reduction: critical for the new pilot who has a high lesion, resulting in renewed designs of the linear and rotational joints, as well as an optimized frame design. The result is a thirty percent weight reduction!
• Software Architecture: a completely renewed and clean version of the software architecture has been made to be able to performe more obstacles than any team has ever done.

Big challenges that we have encountered so far are having a reliable boot-up of the exoskeleton, lead times of certain parts, and the quality of certain rotational joint parts. These challenges have shortened the available training time, which means we have to test a lot of obstacles in a relatively short time frame. This year the Electrical and Embedded department improved and developed several printed circuit boards (PCBs). One of them is the Power Distribution Board (PDB). As the name suggests, the PDB is responsible for distributing the power, which is supplied by the battery, to all the electrical components inside the exoskeleton in a safe manner. Since not all components need the same voltage, the PDB contains several power converters to convert the 48V delivered by the battery to 12V, 5V, and 3.3V.

To make the exoskeleton more accessible for Daan, we improved the PCBs to store the blade connectors so that the battery in the backpack could easily be injected and ejected. In order to communicate with our motor controllers, with the help of Eurocircuits, we have developed a PCB called the MDrive. The MDrive allows us to collect various data from the sensors and controls the joints of our exoskeleton. This is a crucial part of the embedded system.

All the PCBs were designed using Altium. Thereafter, the designs were sent to Eurocircuits, who reviewed and fabricated them. Their production process was fast and intuitive, which is exactly what you would desire in a student team when time is key.

The CYBATHLON 2024 takes place at the end of October, and you can follow our journey via our social media channels!