The MyoSuit – mobility assistance for everyday life

ended

Mobility impairments can affect a person’s quality of life by making simple everyday tasks difficult or impossible to perform. These impairments may be the result of genetic disorders, a neurological injury, or simply ageing. Since many of these conditions cannot be cured with the current state of medical care available, the best option to regain—or maintain—mobility is to use assistive technologies. In Europe, 9.7% of the population of working age (15-64 years old) report difficulties with walking, sitting, standing, or lifting and carrying objects. For those over 65 years old—a segment of the population with a spending capacity of over €3,000 billion—age-related impairments are expected to grow from 68 million in 2005 to 84 million in 2020. To address this growing need for assistive devices that support users in their daily lives we have created the MyoSuit. The MyoSuit is a lightweight garment-like device that combines robotics with functional textiles to function as a wearable muscle. This wearable muscle uses novel algorithms and sensing technology to deliver continuous force assistance in an e-bike-like manner. With these intelligent algorithms, the MyoSuit detects the user’s movement patterns and provides optimal support to the lower limbs across activities of daily life such as walking, stair negotiation, and sitting transfers. We envision a future where technology for mobility assistance is simple, intuitive and—borrowing from the WHO’s approach to ageing and health—allows people to do the things they value for as long as possible.