This device, the result of a partnership between Harvard University and Boston University, provides relief from one of the most crippling symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.
The impact that Parkinson’s disease, a neurodegenerative ailment that affects the central nervous system, has on patients’ mobility is the aspect of the disease that is most widely known. In addition to creating tremors and other unintentional movements, Parkinson’s disease frequently causes a symptom known as “gait freezing,” in which persons who are normally mobile suddenly find that they are unable to move their legs or other parts of their foot. However, when people with Parkinson’s are crossing the street, stranded in bad weather, or otherwise in settings that are less than acceptable, gait freezing is dangerous. Gait freezing is highly discouraging under conditions that are quite safe. In point of fact, freezing temperatures are the root cause of many falls that are associated with Parkinson’s disease.
There is a possibility that soft robotics could be the solution to preventing the occurrence of this devastating phenomena. Recently, researchers from Harvard University and Boston University worked together to develop a wearable device that makes use of soft robotics to help persons with Parkinson’s disease to move with confidence and fluidity. Early research indicates that the “robotic apparel” can entirely remove gait freezing in Parkinson’s patients, making it easier and safer for them to walk. This is despite the fact that the device’s interventions appear to be very superficial.
The majority of the gadget is made up of two flexible components that are worn around the areas of the hips and thighs. Actuators are components that are connected to one another by vertical straps that also serve as load routes. These components are responsible for providing “assistive torques” to the wearer without considerably sacrificing their physical comfort. Both of the flexible components contain sensors that are able to estimate the phase of the wearer’s stride as the wearer’s leg swings forward. These sensors then instruct the actuators to gently press on the wearer’s hips in accordance with the estimated phase. Together with the natural muscular movements of the wearer, these controlled forces work to make it possible for the wearer to take longer strides.
According to an article that was published on Friday in Nature Medicine, the device not only assists individuals who have Parkinson’s disease in traveling greater distances in a shorter amount of time, but it also completely eliminates gait freezing among these individuals. When the researchers wrote that patients were able to avoid freezing when walking indoors by using their robotic gear, they stated that without the device, patients would spend anywhere from a quarter to a half of their walking time experiencing gait freeze. Having achieved this achievement, the team proceeded to test the device on patients over the course of several days and in a variety of different environmental settings. Additionally, gait freezing was avoided to a significant extent in those studies, with only “occasional episodes” experienced outside.
In the past few years, there have been a number of positive developments in the fight against Parkinson’s disease. These advancements include a brain implant that reverses the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease as well as an experimental skin swab test that was developed in collaboration with a lady who can smell the disease. A wearable gadget such as this one is being developed with the expectation that it will assist patients in overcoming irritating mobility limitations without the need for intrusive, hazardous, or extremely expensive surgeries. In addition, the clothing could be of use to researchers in their efforts to investigate the mechanics and intricacies of gait freezing in order to investigate additional therapies.