A wearable soft robot has been developed to help Parkinson’s disease patients with ‘freezing gait symptoms’ in which their legs suddenly tremble or they stop walking. It is expected that if Parkinson’s disease patients wear a robot, their quality of life will be greatly improved as they will be able to go out without injury.
A joint research team from Harvard University and Boston University recently announced that it has developed a wearable soft robot that detects leg movements in Parkinson’s disease patients and helps them walk stably. The research team said, “Wearing a soft robot can improve walking under various conditions with a little mechanical help.” The research results were published in the international academic journal ‘Nature Medicine’.
Parkinson’s disease is a neurodegenerative disorder that affects more than 9 million people worldwide. As brain nerve cells degenerate, they interfere with the signals that control muscles, causing hands and feet to tremble and limbs to become stiff in the early stages of the disease. Because of this, patients frequently fall and get seriously injured while walking in their daily lives. Although symptoms can be alleviated with medication and rehabilitation, there is still no complete cure. The research team collaborated with experts from various fields, including engineers, physical therapists, and clothing designers, to develop a wearable robot. Wearable soft robots have actuators and sensors connected by cables to a band worn on the waist and thighs. The sensor captures the leg movements and estimates each walking step using the collected data, and then the actuator pulls the thighs and gently pushes the buttocks up accordingly to assist walking.
The research team tested a wearable soft robot for six months on a 73-year-old male patient who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease 10 years ago. Despite surgical and drug treatment, this patient had symptoms of freezing gait more than 10 times a day and fell frequently. Because of this, I had to rely on a scooter instead of walking to go out. As a result of Parkinson’s disease patients wearing the soft robot, they were able to walk naturally indoors without any special training and did not show symptoms of gait freezing. It has become possible to walk outdoors while wearing a soft robot. The patient said, “Wearing the robot helped me maintain my quality of life by allowing me to walk farther and longer.”
2024-01-07 19:43:00
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