FREEHAB: accessible, comfortable and adaptable wearable rehabilitation and assist devices

FREEHAB：方便、舒适且适应性强的可穿戴康复和辅助设备

• 批准号: EP/S026096/1
• 负责人: Jonathan Rossiter
• 金额: $ 150.5万
• 依托单位: University of Bristol
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2019 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FS026096%2F1
• 关键词: FREEHAB; accessible; comfortable; adaptable; wearable

There are over 10.8 million disabled people living in the UK today. Nearly 6.5 million have mobility impairments. These numbers are growing as the median population age increases and age-related mobility issues due to musculoskeletal and neurological conditions such as arthritis and stroke, become more prevalent. Rehabilitation helps people improve and maintain their abilities in everyday life, but currently patient outcomes are hampered in two ways: Firstly, there is a lack of easy to use dynamic tools to help therapists to accurately analyse their patients' gait and mobility performance and devise the most effective personalised training and rehabilitation programmes. Secondly, as more and more rehabilitation occurs at home and requires patients to practice in the absence of a therapist, better ways to support in-home mobility and training are needed, to enable patients to achieve their potential in everyday mobility tasks. The FREEHAB Healthcare Impact Partnership will develop soft wearable rehabilitative devices to directly address these needs. FREEHAB will build on discoveries from our previous EPSRC Right Trousers project in which we discovered new soft materials that can be used like artificial muscles. These include 3D printable electroactive gel materials and soft, but strong, pneumatic chains that change they shape when inflated and can exert considerable forces. These materials will be used to develop devices to help people to walk, stand and to move from sitting to standing. Together with integrated sensing technology we will make devices that physiotherapists can use to accurately pinpoint limitations in their patients' movements, thus enabling them to plan personalised training programmes. We will also make simpler devices that the patient can use to enhance their mobility activities and exercises with confidence when a therapist is not with them.To do this we will work in partnership with physiotherapists in NHS services and in private practice, with people who have personally experienced physiotherapy for their mobility problems, and with business partners who are experienced in bringing rehabilitation and assistive technology devices through from concept to market. We will initially determine what patient and clinical considerations we need to take into account to design and develop the devices. We will continually consult with partners for their ideas and opinions as the devices are developed. We will plan how FREEHAB technologies will progress from research and development through translation into clinical trials, and to bring the devices into the supply chain after the project is over. This will be undertaken with advice from our clinical and business partners and with regard to regulation of devices for use in the NHS and intellectual property for commercialisation. When we have designed and manufactured our prototype devices we will test them to determine how physiotherapists find them useful for assessment and how patients find them comfortable and useful for carrying out their physiotherapy training and rehabilitation. We will collect their views alongside formal measurements of patients' performance when they are wearing the devices compared to their performance when using a conventional orthotic brace. We will ensure we have the right regulatory and ethical approval for this early proof of concept testing. The results of our evaluations will help us to prepare for the next stages in product development and clinical testing needed to bring the devices into use in the NHS.

如今，英国有超过 1080 万残疾人。近 650 万人有行动障碍。随着人口年龄中位数的增加以及关节炎和中风等肌肉骨骼和神经系统疾病导致的与年龄相关的行动不便问题变得更加普遍，这些数字还在增长。康复帮助人们提高和维持日常生活能力，但目前患者的治疗效果受到两个方面的阻碍：首先，缺乏易于使用的动态工具来帮助治疗师准确分析患者的步态和活动能力，并制定最有效的个性化训练和康复计划。其次，随着越来越多的康复在家里进行，并要求患者在没有治疗师的情况下练习，需要更好的方法来支持家庭活动和培训，以使患者在日常活动任务中发挥其潜力。 FREEHAB 医疗影响合作伙伴关系将开发软可穿戴康复设备来直接满足这些需求。 FREEHAB 将以我们之前的 EPSRC Right Trousers 项目的发现为基础，在该项目中我们发现了可以像人造肌肉一样使用的新软材料。其中包括可 3D 打印的电活性凝胶材料和柔软但坚固的气动链条，它们在充气时会改变形状并可以施加相当大的力。这些材料将用于开发帮助人们行走、站立以及从坐到站的设备。与集成传感技术一起，我们将制造物理治疗师可以用来准确查明患者运动限制的设备，从而使他们能够规划个性化的训练计划。我们还将制造更简单的设备，当治疗师不在身边时，患者可以放心地使用这些设备来增强他们的活动活动和锻炼。为此，我们将与 NHS 服务和私人诊所的物理治疗师、亲自经历过移动问题物理治疗的人员以及在将康复和辅助技术设备从概念推向市场方面经验丰富的业务合作伙伴合作。我们将首先确定设计和开发设备时需要考虑哪些患者和临床因素。随着设备的开发，我们将不断征求合作伙伴的想法和意见。我们将规划FREEHAB技术如何从研发到转化为临床试验，并在项目结束后将设备纳入供应链。这将根据我们的临床和业务合作伙伴的建议以及有关 NHS 中使用的设备的监管和商业化知识产权的建议进行。当我们设计和制造原型设备时，我们将对它们进行测试，以确定物理治疗师如何认为它们对评估有用，以及患者如何觉得它们对于进行物理治疗训练和康复来说舒适且有用。我们将收集他们的意见，同时对患者佩戴该设备时的表现与使用传统矫形支具时的表现进行正式测量。我们将确保这一早期概念验证测试获得正确的监管和道德批准。我们的评估结果将帮助我们为下一阶段的产品开发和临床测试做好准备，以便将这些设备投入 NHS 使用。

项目成果

Self-Sensing Electro-Ribbon Actuators

• DOI: 10.1109/lra.2020.2983677
• 发表时间: 2020-07-01
• 期刊: IEEE ROBOTICS AND AUTOMATION LETTERS
• 影响因子: 5.2
• 作者: Bluett, Simon;Helps, Tim;Rossiter, Jonathan
• 通讯作者: Rossiter, Jonathan

Toward Stimuli-Responsive Soft Robots with 3D Printed Self-Healing Konjac Glucomannan Gels.

• DOI: 10.1089/3dp.2020.0289
• 发表时间: 2021-07
• 期刊: 3D printing and additive manufacturing
• 影响因子: 3.1
• 作者: Krishna Manaswi Digumarti;Daniel Gosden;Nguyen Hao Le;J. Rossiter

Self-reconfiguring Soft Modular Cellbots

• DOI: 10.1109/robosoft55895.2023.10122122
• 发表时间: 2023-04
• 期刊: 2023 IEEE International Conference on Soft Robotics (RoboSoft)
• 作者: Ridhi Bansal;H. Hauser;J. Rossiter

Modular simulation framework for Electro-ribbon Actuators

电子带执行器的模块化仿真框架

• DOI: 10.1109/robosoft51838.2021.9479259
• 发表时间: 2021
• 作者: Castro B

GelBat: An Edible Gelatin-Based Battery

GelBat：一种可食用明胶电池

• DOI: 10.1109/robosoft55895.2023.10121947
• 发表时间: 2023
• 作者: Chen H