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Soft robot jacket offers support for upper-limb disabilities

Soft robot jacket offers support for upper-limb disabilities
Source: interestingengineering
Author: @IntEngineering
Published: 8/22/2025

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Researchers at Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, in collaboration with Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, have developed a soft, wearable robotic jacket designed to assist individuals with upper-limb impairments caused by conditions such as stroke and ALS. This device uses a combination of machine learning and a physics-based hysteresis model to personalize movement assistance by accurately detecting the user’s motion intentions through sensors. The integrated real-time controller adjusts the level of support based on the user’s specific movements and kinematic state, enhancing control transparency and practical usability in daily tasks like eating and drinking. In trials involving stroke and ALS patients, the robotic jacket demonstrated a 94.2% accuracy in identifying subtle shoulder movements and reduced the force needed to lower the arm by nearly one-third compared to previous models. It also improved movement quality by increasing range of motion in the shoulder, elbow, and wrist, reducing compensatory trunk movements by up to 25.4%, and enhancing hand-path efficiency by up

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soft-roboticswearable-robotsupper-limb-supportassistive-technologymachine-learningrehabilitation-roboticshuman-robot-interaction