NIT Rourkela Secures Rs. 95.16 Lakh for Exoskeleton Research Project

National Institute of Technology Rourkela (NIT Rourkela) has been awarded a research project valued at Rs. 95.16 lakh for research on wearable robotic devices: Exoskeletons. This is one of the two research projects under the Scheme for Promotion of Academic and Research Collaboration (SPARC) of the Ministry of Education, Government of India, with a total sanctioned funding of over Rs. 1.82 crore. The other is for agriculture. Each project has a duration of two years.

SPARC is a national initiative aimed at strengthening India’s research ecosystem by promoting structured collaboration between Indian higher education institutions and leading global universities, enabling joint research, academic exchange, and research capacity building in identified priority areas.

This particular project focuses on developing wearable robotic devices, known as exoskeletons, that assist individuals in regaining or improving mobility following illness or injury. Researchers from NIT Rourkela will be working closely with international experts to design affordable, scalable, and easy-to-use exosuits tailored for elderly individuals and post-stroke patients, particularly in local clinical and rural healthcare contexts.

The wearable systems aim to support lower-limb movement and use smart sensors and artificial intelligence to analyse patient motion and assist in correcting movement patterns during rehabilitation. This institutional partnership includes joint coursework, hands-on design and prototyping workshops, and student and researcher exchanges, stated the communication note.

Research on Smart Exoskeletons in Healthcare: Principle and Practices for Developing Scalable Exosuits for Rural Applications, is led by Dr. Anup Nandy, Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, as Principal Investigator (PI), with Dr. Ratnakar Dash, Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, as Co-PI. The project is being implemented in collaboration with the University of Nebraska at Omaha, USA, with Prof. Mukul Mukherjee as Foreign PI and Prof. Philippe Malcolm as Foreign Co-PI.

The project underlines NIT Rourkela’s expanding engagement in high-impact international research collaborations and application-oriented research with tangible societal outcomes, said the communication note.