Michael Sommerhalder
Papers
8
Total Citations
141
H-Index
5
About
Michael Sommerhalder is a leading researcher in the field of robot-assisted neurorehabilitation, with a primary focus on developing advanced exoskeleton technologies for upper-limb therapy. His most impactful contribution is the "ANYexo 2.0," a fully actuated upper-limb exoskeleton (94 citations) that covers all relevant degrees of freedom of the human arm, enabling comprehensive rehabilitation from severely affected patients requiring mobilization to mildly affected individuals needing strength training. Sommerhalder has pioneered several innovative control frameworks, including a polymorphic control system that automates and individualizes therapy, and a "teach-and-mimic" approach that allows exoskeletons to replicate therapists' personalized haptic guidance. His work on haptic rendering using point clouds (10 citations) addresses critical safety concerns in physical human-robot interaction, while his trajectory optimization framework enables individualized, multi-workspace rehabilitation exercises. Sommerhalder has also developed intuitive therapist interfaces like ARMStick to improve clinical acceptance of rehabilitation robots, and introduced "Digital Guinea Pig" human-in-the-loop simulation methods for safer exoskeleton development. His research collectively advances the goal of making robot-assisted therapy more personalized, effective, and accessible across all stages of stroke rehabilitation.
Research Focus
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Top Papers
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