Millions of people in the UK are given assistive devices they find uncomfortable, undignified, or simply do not use. This project will build the first wearable soft robotic clothing designed to avoid those failures. The problem is stark: 6.5 million people in the UK have mobility impairments, yet much of the assistive technology they receive is rigid, ill-fitting, and often abandoned. In extreme cases, poorly prescribed devices cause injury or worsen disability. The consequences—falls, skin pressure damage, poor circulation—cost the NHS over £4 billion annually, with stroke-related costs reaching £9.8 billion. Soft robotics, unlike conventional rigid exoskeletons, uses materials that physically match human tissue and motion. This project aims to develop the fundamental technologies needed to create a single class of wearable device that can assist with rehabilitation, restore function, and support long-term independent living. The goal is a device that is effective, easy to use, and highly adaptable. If successful, the outcome will be two fully tested wearable demonstrators. This is not a product ready for market, but a proof of concept for a new category of assistive technology—one that could transform how disabled and older people live independently, without sacrificing dignity.
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This project addresses the growing healthcare needs of people to live independently with dignity. There are 10.8 million disabled people living in the UK today (Office for Disability Issues 2010). Nearly 6.5 million have mobility impairments; 6 million have an impairment of lifting and carrying; 2.4 million have impaired co-ordination. Many of these people are supplied with assistive and rehabilitative technologies (ART), but much ART has low user acceptability and concordance, and may have a negative impact on people's perceived dignity. Many people do not use ART correctly, or at all, and many people find ART devices undignified. In extreme cases ill-fitting or ill-prescribed ART may even cause injury or increase disability. The consequence of this lack of effective and acceptable ART is that people living with mobility impairments are more prone to conditions such as poor circulation, skin pressure damage and falls. Each of these conditions has an enormous public health implication and together they constitute a substantial drain on health and social care resources. The cost of falls to the NHS is £2Bn, skin pressure damage £2.1Bn, and the overall cost of stroke to health and social care services and the loss of income is £9.8Bn. This project will be the first time that emerging soft robotics technologies are employed to address multiple rehabilitation and health care needs in one single class of wearable device, enabling effective and comfortable rehabilitation, functional restoration and long term assisted living. In contrast to conventional rigid robotics, the inherent physical compatibility of soft robotics with biological tissue and human motion means that truly adaptive assistive and rehabilitative technologies (or aART) can be realised. Soft robotic aART has the potential to be the ubiquitous, low cost and highly adaptable technology that transforms independent living for the disabled and infirm. The exciting challenge of this project is to develop the fundamental soft robot technologies needed to deliver wearable soft robotic assistive clothing and devices that are: 1. Effective in respect to a patient and their clinical need; 2. Easy to use; and, 3. Highly adaptable. The outcome of this project will be two fully tested soft robotic wearable demonstrator devices.
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