Around 30,000 people in the United States suffer from the neurodegenerative disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease), in which the nerve cells that control movement in the brain and spinal cord are gradually destroyed.
A group of researchers from Harvard’s John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS) and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have teamed up to develop a soft robotic wearable to help people with ALS regain some upper body mobility.
The prototype assistive device is made of fabric and powered by a wireless battery.
“This study gives us hope that soft robotic wearable technology might help us develop new devices capable of restoring functional limb abilities in people with ALS and other diseases that rob patients of their mobility,” says Conor Walsh, Senior Author of a Science Translational Medicine paper reporting the group’s work. Walsh is the Paul A. Maeder Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences at SEAS where he drives the Harvard Biodesign Laboratory.
The team developed a sensor system that has the potential to detect residual movement of the arm and calibrates the suitable pressurisation of a balloon actuator to move the arm of the person in a smooth and natural manner, which will be of great benefit to those with ALS.
According to Tommaso Proietti, Study First Author and Former Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Walsh’s Lab, Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, “This technology is quite simple in its essence. It’s basically a shirt with some inflatable, balloon-like actuators under the armpit. The pressurised balloon helps the wearer combat gravity to move their upper arm and shoulders.”
Proietti further stated, “Our vision is that these robots should function like apparel and be comfortable to wear for long periods of time.”
The team is working with MGH Neurologist Leigh Hochberg, Principal Investigator of the BrainGate Neural Interface System, to investigate potential versions of assistive wearables, whose motions could be controlled by signals in the brain. A device like this, the researchers believe, could someday aid patients, without any remaining muscle activity, with their movements.
Proietti claims that the responses received from the ALS study subjects were deeply moving, inspiring and motivating. Even though this is in the research phase, but wearables as such are gaining traction.
