Soft Robotic Exosuit Eliminates Gait Freezing in Parkinson’s Disease

Saturday - January 6 2024, 18:56 UTC - 10 months ago

Researchers at Harvard and Boston University have teamed up to develop a soft robotic exosuit to help those with Parkinson’s disease walk without freezing. The study showed that the soft robotic garment, worn around the hips and thighs, allowed the participant to have a longer stride and walk faster and farther. This could potentially allow people living with Parkinson’s to regain their mobility and independence.

Robotic exosuit eliminated gait freezing, a common and highly debilitating symptom of Parkinson's disease, a neurodegenerative disorder that affects more than 9 million people worldwide. When individuals with Parkinson's disease freeze, they suddenly lose the ability to move their feet, often mid-stride, resulting in a series of staccato stutter steps that get shorter until the person stops altogether. These episodes are one of the biggest contributors to falls among people living with Parkinson's disease. Today, freezing is treated with a range of pharmacological, surgical, or behavioral therapies, none of which are particularly effective.

What if there was a way to stop freezing altogether? Researchers from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and the Boston University Sargent College of Health & Rehabilitation Sciences have used a soft, wearable robot to help a person living with Parkinson's walk without freezing. The robotic garment, worn around the hips and thighs, gives a gentle push to the hips as the leg swings, helping the patient achieve a longer stride. The device completely eliminated the participant's freezing while walking indoors, allowing them to walk faster and further than they could without the garment's help.

"We found that just a small amount of mechanical assistance from our soft robotic apparel delivered instantaneous effects and consistently improved walking across a range of conditions for the individual in our study," said Conor Walsh, the Paul A. Maeder Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences at SEAS and co-corresponding author of the study.

The research demonstrates the potential of soft robotics to treat this frustrating and potentially dangerous symptom of Parkinson's disease and could allow people living with the disease to regain not only their mobility but their independence. The research will be published today (January 5) in Nature Medicine.

For over a decade, Walsh's Biodesign Lab at SEAS has been developing assistive and rehabilitative robotic technologies to improve mobility for individuals' post-stroke and those living with ALS or other diseases that impact mobility. Some of that technology, specifically an exosuit for post-stroke gait retraining, received support from the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, and was licensed and commercialized by ReWalk Robotics.

In 2022, SEAS and Sargent College rekindled their collaboration, specifically to target freezing of gait in Parkinson's disease.

The soft robotic exosuit has shown tremendous potential in treating Parkinson's disease and other crippling medical conditions, allowing those affected to regain their ability to move and their freedom. The research indicates that a small amount of mechanical assistance from the exosuit can significantly improve walking ability across a number of conditions. More research and advancement in the field is needed for a large-scale application of the device, though the current study indicates that those with Parkinson's disease can benefit from the tailored assistance provided by a wearable soft robotic garment.