Case Study: Project MARCH builds realistic robotic exoskeleton prototypes with ProtoPie

How Project MARCH Uses ProtoPie To Build Robotic Exoskeletons

Project March, a non-profit team of students, aimed to build a user-friendly robotic exoskeleton for people with spinal cord injuries but needed to test a new smartphone-based input device concept. Their challenge was to create a quick yet highly realistic and interactive prototype of this hardware interface to validate their assumptions before committing to the full development process. They utilized a free student license of ProtoPie for this project.

Using ProtoPie, the team connected a smartphone to an Arduino board to simulate the final product's functions. This solution from ProtoPie allowed them to rapidly create a functional prototype, which they successfully tested with a potential user to confirm the design would work as intended. The tool was praised for being quick to set up, intuitive, and versatile, giving the team the confidence to proceed with their innovative exoskeleton design.

Project March

Art van Zuuk

Design Engineer