Wearable Soft Robotics for Independent Living

该项目旨在满足人们日益增长的医疗保健需求，使他们能够有尊严地独立生活。今天，有1080万残疾人生活在联合王国（残疾问题办公室，2010年）。近650万人有行动障碍; 600万人有搬运障碍; 240万人有协调障碍。向其中许多人提供了辅助和康复技术，但许多辅助和康复技术的用户接受度和一致性很低，可能对人们的尊严感产生负面影响。许多人没有正确使用ART，或者根本没有使用ART，许多人认为ART设备不体面。在极端情况下，不合适或处方不当的抗逆转录病毒疗法甚至可能造成伤害或增加残疾。缺乏有效和可接受的抗逆转录病毒疗法的后果是，有行动障碍的人更容易出现循环不良、皮肤压力损伤和福尔斯等疾病。这些疾病中的每一种都对公共卫生产生巨大影响，它们共同构成了对卫生和社会保健资源的巨大消耗。福尔斯给NHS带来的成本为20亿英镑，皮肤压力损伤为21亿英镑，中风给健康和社会护理服务带来的总成本以及收入损失为98亿英镑。该项目将是首次采用新兴的软机器人技术来解决单一类别可穿戴设备中的多种康复和医疗保健需求，实现有效和舒适的康复，功能恢复和长期辅助生活。与传统的刚性机器人相比，软机器人与生物组织和人体运动的内在物理兼容性意味着可以实现真正的自适应辅助和康复技术（或aART）。软机器人aART有可能成为无处不在的，低成本和高度适应性的技术，改变残疾人和体弱者的独立生活。该项目的令人兴奋的挑战是开发基本的软机器人技术，需要提供可穿戴的软机器人辅助服装和设备：1。对患者及其临床需求有效; 2.使用方便; 3。适应性强该项目的成果将是两个经过充分测试的软机器人可穿戴演示设备。

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.