A Peristaltic Soft, Wearable Robot for Compression Therapy and Massage

Soft robotics is attractive for wearable applications that require conformal interactions with the human body. Soft wearable robotic garments hold promise for supplying dynamic compression or massage therapies to improve lymphatic and blood circulation. In this paper, we present a wearable robot cap...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inIEEE robotics and automation letters Vol. 8; no. 8; pp. 1 - 8
Main Authors Zhu, Mengjia, Ferstera, Adrian, Dinulescu, Stejara, Kastor, Nikolas, Linnander, Max, Hawkes, Elliot W., Visell, Yon
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Piscataway IEEE 01.08.2023
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
Subjects
Actuators
Blood circulation
Compression therapy
Compression waves
Dynamics
Fluids
Force
Hydraulic systems
Longitudinal waves
Massage
Medical treatment
Robots
Soft robot applications
Soft robotics
Therapy
wearable robotics
Wearable robots
Wearable technology
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Summary:Soft robotics is attractive for wearable applications that require conformal interactions with the human body. Soft wearable robotic garments hold promise for supplying dynamic compression or massage therapies to improve lymphatic and blood circulation. In this paper, we present a wearable robot capable of supplying dynamic compression and massage therapy via peristaltic motion of finger-sized, soft, fluidic actuators. We show that this peristaltic wearable robot can supply dynamic compression pressures exceeding 22 kPa at frequencies of 14 Hz or more, meeting requirements for compression and massage therapy. A large variety of software-programmable compression wave patterns can be generated by varying frequency, amplitude, phase delay, and duration parameters. We finally demonstrate the utility of this peristaltic wearable robot for compression therapy, showing fluid transport in a laboratory model of the upper limb. We theoretically and empirically identify driving regimes that optimize fluid transport. These findings show the potential of such a wearable robot for the treatment of several health disorders associated with lymphatic and blood circulation, such as lymphedema and blood clots.
ISSN:2377-3766
2377-3766
DOI:10.1109/LRA.2023.3287773