TinyBMS powered innovative motorized exoskeleton

• August 19, 2025 Share article
TinyBMS installed in motorized MARCH X exoskeleton
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At ENEPAQ, we believe in celebrating the creativity and determination of engineers who push boundaries. That’s why we’re sharing real-world case studies — to highlight how our TinyBMS battery management system helps bring bold ideas to life across a wide range of projects.

One inspiring example comes from Project MARCH, a dedicated student team from TU Delft, known for building next-generation exoskeletons. In their 10th exoskeleton prototype, nearly a decade of innovation led to a major breakthrough: the device could stand upright, fully self-balanced, for over an hour — powered by a battery pack small enough to fit in the palm of your hand. At the heart of that power system – ENEPAQ’s TinyBMS.

Short description of the project

Project MARCH started in 2015 with the mission to develop an innovative motorized exoskeleton. The inspiration came from the desire to improve mobility and independence for people with spinal cord injury by enabling them to stand up and walk again using robotic technology.

Currently, people with a spinal cord injury are confined to wheelchairs for life, resulting in a decrease in both physical and mental health. For example, muscles and bones become weaker and cardiovascular function declines. An exoskeleton creates a larger freedom of movement, resulting in practical benefits for performing daily life tasks. Furthermore, being able to stand on eye level with friends and family is experienced as something with great emotional value. Walking in an exoskeleton also has physical benefits, including significant improvements in blood flow, bowel and bladder movement, and bone structure.

TinyBMS battery management system helps bring bold ideas to life across a wide range of projects.
TinyBMS battery management system helps bring bold ideas to life across a wide range of projects.

“Each year, a new multidisciplinary team of students puts their studies on hold to design, build, and test a new exoskeleton within one year. The goal is to push the boundaries of what is technically possible while making the exoskeleton more user-friendly, intuitive, and efficient”, – Thomas Ritmeester, Electrical Engineer from Project MARCH explains.

By combining engineering innovation with a strong social mission, Project MARCH aims to bridge the gap between technology and rehabilitation, contributing to a more inclusive future. Now in its 10th year, the team is developing its 10th exoskeleton, building on nearly a decade of continuous improvement and dedication.

Main challenges

As Th.Ritmeester emphasizes, Project MARCH team focuses on the implementation of standing balance inside exoskeleton for use in social situations, like concerts.

“There were many challenges on both the hardware and software side: balancing needs a tightly controlled feedback loop, where the exoskeleton needs to be able to compensate for disturbances in any direction. For this reason, we implemented an extra degree of freedom in our ankle joint this year, allowing for an actuated rolling motion of the ankle. The ankle is now actuated by a coupled system, using two linear actuators, which allows for resisting against sideways disturbances”, – says a member of Project MARCH team.

As Th.Ritmeester points out, teams’ goal of using the exoskeleton in social situations requires long battery life.
“For this reason, we redesigned our battery pack using different cells. By analyzing the power usage of last year’s exoskeleton, we determined that we were able to switch to a different cell type that has a higher capacity, at the cost of lower peak current. This allowed us to increase the battery capacity by 20%. This allows the exoskeleton to stand self-balanced for more than an hour with a battery pack that fits in the palm of your hand”.

“Since our battery packs are located close to the human body, we take the safety of our systems in high regard. That’s why we found it important to use a quality BMS”. Thomas Ritmeester

Main achievements of 2025

As team member recalls, main achievements went hand in hand with the design challenges this year. March Project team is proud of the redesigned exoskeleton, which has an additional degree of freedom in the ankle. Additionally, many sensors were added, like several IMUs throughout the system and force sensors below the feet, all aiding in the main goal of maintaining balance.

“Seeing the system coming to life over the course of just a few months, kept motivating to keep working on it. And especially, seeing our pilot, who is normally unable to walk due to his spinal cord injury, take his first steps inside our exoskeleton was the most magical moment of the entire year”, – says Th.Ritmeester.

TinyBMS battery management system helps bring bold ideas to life across a wide range of projects.

Enepaq role in the project

As Electrical Engineer from Project MARCH explains, ENEPAQ BMSs were used for several years by previous Project MARCH teams, which is how they knew of the brand.

“After considering several alternatives, we chose to use the TinyBMS from ENEPAQ again. Since exoskeletons have space limitations, the TinyBMS is a great solution, since it is one of the most compact products, we found that allow for monitoring the battery pack using external electronics. The UART communication allows for reading the state of the battery pack using our custom electronics, which was easy to do due to the detailed documentation of the BMS”, – Th.Ritmeester explains.

Additionally, the BMS was a European product with CE certification.

“Since our battery packs are located close to the human body, we take the safety of our systems in high regard. That’s why we found it important to use a quality BMS”.

The ENEPAQ TinyBMS is found in the custom removable battery packs that team used in the project. The battery packs are 15-cell, 3600mAh LFP battery packs.

“The BMS monitors the cells and transmits the data to our custom electronics. With this data we can remotely determine the state of charge of the battery packs and monitor the power use. In addition, the BMS provides critical safety measures, protecting the battery packs and thus the user in case of overcurrent or overheating”, – says Th.Ritmeester.

Project MARCH team is developing 10th exoskeleton.

“Seeing our pilot, who is normally unable to walk due to his spinal cord injury, take his first steps inside our exoskeleton was the most magical moment of the entire year”. Th.Ritmeester.

The future of the project

The current focus of project MARCH is to improve the balance of the exoskeleton. Current team goal focuses on balanced standing, so without the crutches that are normally needed in other exoskeletons.

“For next year, we want to build upon the technological advancements we made to achieve this balanced stand and move towards a natural-looking, momentum-based walk without crutches”, – summarizes Th.Ritmeester.

More information about the project can be found here.

Author: Rūta Šutėnė

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