Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also called Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a neurodegenerative condition that causes damage to cells in the brain and spinal cord that are essential for movement. Around 30,000 people in the United States are affected by this disease.
This soft robotic wearable is capable of significantly assisting upper arm and shoulder movement in people with ALS. Image Credit: Walsh Lab, Harvard SEAS.
Now, a research group from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) has come up with a soft robotic wearable that has the potential to considerably assist upper arm and shoulder movement in people with ALS.
“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 assistive prototype is soft, fabric-based, and powered wirelessly with the help of a battery.
This technology is quite simple in its essence. It’s basically a shirt with some inflatable, balloon-like actuators under the armpit. The pressurized balloon helps the wearer combat gravity to move their upper arm and shoulder.
Tommaso Proietti, Study First Author and Former Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Walsh’s Lab, Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
To help patients with ALS, the team came up with a sensor system that has the potential to detect residual movement of the arm and calibrates the suitable pressurization of the balloon actuator to move the arm of the person in a smooth and natural manner.
The scientists enlisted ten people living with ALS to assess how well the device may stretch or restore their movement and life’s quality.
The research group discovered that the soft robotic wearable—following a 30-second calibration process to detect each wearer’s special level of mobility and strength—enhanced the study participants’ range of motion, decreased muscle fatigue, and achieved high performance in tasks like reaching or holding objects. Less than 15 minutes were taken by participants to learn how to make use of the device.
These systems are also very safe, intrinsically, because they’re made of fabric and inflatable balloons. As opposed to traditional rigid robots, when a soft robot fails it means the balloons simply don’t inflate anymore. But the wearer is at no risk of injury from the robot.
Tommaso Proietti, Study First Author and Former Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Walsh’s Lab, Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
Walsh states the soft wearable device is light on the body, thereby feeling just like clothing to the wearer.
Proietti stated, “Our vision is that these robots should function like apparel and be comfortable to wear for long periods of time.”
His team is partnering with neurologist David Lin, Director of MGH’s Neurorecovery Clinic, on rehabilitative applications for patients who have experienced a stroke. Also, the team anticipates extensive applications of the technology, such as for those with muscular dystrophy or spinal cord injuries.
“As we work to develop new disease-modifying treatments that will prolong life expectancy, it is imperative to also develop tools that can improve patients’ independence with everyday activities,” states Sabrina Paganoni, one of the co-authors of the study.
Paganoni is a physician-scientist at MGH’s Healey & AMG Center for ALS and an associate professor at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital/Harvard Medical School.
In collaboration with MGH neurologist Leigh Hochberg, Principal Investigator of the BrainGate Neural Interface System, the team is examining possible versions of assistive wearables whose movements could be regulated by signals in the brain. The researchers hope that such a device may someday help movement in patients who no longer have any residual muscle activity.
According to Proietti, feedback given by the ALS study participants was moving, inspiring, and motivating.
Looking into people’s eyes as they performed tasks and experienced movement using the wearable, hearing their feedback that they were overjoyed to suddenly be moving their arm in ways they hadn’t been able to in years, it was a very bittersweet feeling.
Tommaso Proietti, Study First Author and Former Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Walsh’s Lab, Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
The research group is keen for this technology to start enhancing people’s lives. However, they warn that they are still in the research phase, several years away from providing a commercial product.
Paganoni stated, “Soft robotic wearables are an important advancement on the path to truly restored function for people with ALS. We are grateful to all people living with ALS who participated in this study: it’s only through their generous efforts that we can make progress and develop new technologies.”
The intellectual property emerging from this study has been safeguarded by Harvard’s Office of Technology Development, which is exploring commercialization chances.
The study was allowed by the Cullen Education and Research Fund (CERF) Medical Engineering Prize for ALS Research, awarded to team members in 2022.
The study’s additional authors include Ciaran O’Neill, Lucas Gerez, Tazzy Cole, Sarah Mendelowitz, Kristin Nuckols, and Cameron Hohimer.
This study was financially supported by the National Science Foundation EFRI Award (#1830896), the Cullen Education and Research Fund (CERF) Medical Engineering Prize for ALS, and the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
Journal Reference
Proietti, T., et al. (2022) Restoring arm function with a soft robotic wearable for individuals with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Science Translational Medicine. doi.org/10.1126/scitranslmed.add1504.