INDI is a Mexican company that designs exoskeletons to help people with motor disabilities of legs recover their mobility. INDI is the dream of 4 Mexicans: Jesús Tamez, Fernando Martínez and Juan Carlos Alcázar, graduates of the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM), and Ulises Tamez, brother of Jesus.

The goal of this group of Mexicans is to help as many people as they can, so they published a basic manual to build an exoskeleton similar to theirs in open source so that engineers everywhere can replicate their exoskeletons. Jesús Tamez said they released the design so that other people can help and in the future it becomes cheaper, accessible and global

“They send me the photos of Shawn standing and it was very exciting.” Jesus, one of the four founders of INDI, tells how his exoskeleton Alice helped a child with motor disabilities to walk. Alice is an exoskeleton that has motors in her joints that generate movement, in addition to electronic components that are mounted on the leg structures.

The advantages of an external skeleton

“Exoskeletons are robots that people can use on their bodies and help them recover abilities that they have lost, such as walking or performing some movement,” Jesus explained.

They have contact interfaces, which are supports that hold up the person both in the hip and in the legs. These supports help the patient regain strength in members of their body with no function and perform tasks such as walking, going up and down stairs, sitting and standing.

The components that Alice uses are low cost with the intention that they can be replicated more easily. Jesus explained that the devices used in medical centers to give rehabilitation to people with motor disabilities cost an average of 15 to 20 million pesos (US$785,000 to US$1 million). Instead, Alice costs between 350,000 and 500,000 pesos (US$18,000 to US$26,000).

The origin of INDI

The idea of ​​creating INDI was born in 2012 when Jesus was studying Engineering in Innovation and Development at the ITSEM. After deciding he wanted to use technology to create machines that would improve people’s lives, Jesus began to investigate how to do it.

“In 2013 Rogelio Soto, a researcher at Tec (ITESM), invited me to a presentation of exoskeletons at the Zambrano (Hospital),” Jesus said. Then he proposed to Jesus to create them. Currently, the INDI team has 16 members and changed its location to France, where Jesus says they will have more opportunities to continue working.

The Shawn case

The case of the 13-year-old boy, only identified as Shawn, was revelaled by INDI as a success for his Alice exoskeleton, which is focused on children and its testing began in May 2019.

It all started with a message from the child’s grandmother in summer 2018. After agreeing, Shawn and his family took a plane from the center of Mexico, from where they originated, to Monterrey, Nuevo León. Alice’s tests were performed at the Zambrano Hellion Hospital, one of the 2 health centers of the ITESM, with which INDI has been collaborating since its foundation.

The first test with Shawn was not successful, so Ulysses spoke with Jesus about some adjustments. In the following tests Shawn felt confident and asked not to receive support from a crane that was used as a support for the patient, nor for medical personnel. So supervised by Ulysses and using Alice, Shawn got up and took some steps without someone else’s help for the first time in his life.

“Seeing a child in a wheelchair stand up for the first time in his life was exciting,” said Ulises.

However, the success of the tests does not guarantee that all persons with disabilities can recover their mobility, they clarify. As Jesus comments, each case is unique and in some of them patients may require different treatments.

“Some of the patients have to (…) use exoskeletons to rehabilitate themselves. That is what the project is looking for,” he said.

The idea of ​​the brothers is that, although there are patients who cannot be cured, using these devices could positively impact their health.

Children like Shawn can move, that helps their gastrointestinal or circulation health. Having exoskeletons in the centers will make this easier, jesus said.

“In the future we seek to influence other areas; exoskeletons for dance for example. We want to include people with disabilities in ballet,” he said.

INDI’s initial dream was to make machines that will help improve people’s lives and Jesus says they are seeing it come true.

 

Source: Agencia ID