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Prototype Soft Robotic Wearable Restores Arm Function for ALS Patients, Hints at Future of Assistive Technology
A soft robotic wearable prototype that significantly assists upper arm and shoulder movement in people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) has been developed by a team of researchers from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and Massachusetts General Hospital.
The team evaluated the technology’s functionality in a study involving 10 ALS patients with varying degrees of limb impairment and published their findings in Science Translational Medicine.
“Along with improvements in movement, we show that this robotic wearable can improve functional activity without any training, restoring performance of basic activities of daily living,” wrote Tommaso Proietti, PhD, postdoctoral researcher, SEAS, Harvard Biodesign Lab, and co-authors in the study abstract. “In addition, a reduction in shoulder muscle activity and perceived muscular exertion, coupled with increased endurance for holding objects, highlight the potential of this device to mitigate the impact of muscular fatigue for patients with ALS.
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These results represent a further step toward everyday use of assistive, soft, robotic wearables for the upper limbs.”
The device itself is pliable, fabric-based, and powered by a cordless battery. After a 30-second calibration process during which the device detects each individual wearer’s particular mobility and strength levels, the wearable was found to improve the study participants’ range of motion, mitigate muscle fatigue, and increased overall performance on movement tasks, like holding or reaching for objects.
“This technology is quite simple in its essence,” noted Proietti in a news release. “It’s basically a shirt with some inflatable, balloon-like actuators under the armpit. The pressurized balloon helps the wearer combat gravity to move their upper arm and shoulder.”
The researchers noted that while soft robotic wearables hold much future potential for the treatment of movement disorders in general, whether caused by ALS, stroke, or another neurodegenerative process, the technology is still in the research phase and thus several years away from being commercially available.
The research was funded by the National Science Foundation EFRI Award, the Cullen Education and Research Fund (CERF) Medical Engineering Prize for ALS, and the Harvard SEAS.
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