The Right Trousers Project

Wearable Soft Robotics for

Independent Living

Newsletter October 2018

Thank you for your support of the first Right Trousers project. After three years of interviews and research, we have advanced science and developed technology to address challenges faced people living with impaired mobility. We recently presented our work to the press at the British Science Festival in Hull and we were thrilled to have been featured in full articles from The Financial Times, The i, The Mail Online, The Guardian, The Metro, The Telegraph, The Times and BBC Science and Technology news webpages.

A summary of our developments is included in this newsletter but you can also find a list of our publications on the publications page of our website: https://therighttrousers.com. Many of the reports are published as Open Access, so you can directly read in detail about the work we’ve been doing.

While the project is officially over, our work on The Right Trousers is not! We’ll continue to publish research related to the project over the next few months. We will be applying for follow-on funding for future projects to progress our wearable soft robotics to help people to walk, as well as other related research to use wearable devices for rehabilitation of mobility, joint pain relief and upper limb rehabilitation and assistance.

Artist Bethan Mure’s cartoon commentary of the conversation in one of the focus groups.

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Round up of developments

User perspectives

Focus groups and individual interviews held in the first year of the project were essential to help the engineers understand what features trousers to help people to walk would need to include. Their learning is captured in these quotes:

‘This provided a very good overall summary of the diverse range of needs, together with the requirements of comfort, usability, safety, aesthetics etc. which are critical. These are all aspects which will be borne greatly in mind in our design’.

‘There is no “perfect” device for all users. Users have different and varied requirements. Many participants brought up the requirement of the wearable technology being easy to put on. Having the issue mentioned in such depth has highlighted the importance of the issue.’

Soft actuators (artificial muscles)

Much of the efforts of our Bristol team has focused on developing a variety of soft actuators to act like artificial muscles for a range of purposes. For example, strings of plastic bubbles that can be inflated and shorten like muscles to lift substantial weights and these could be incorporated into trousers to help the wearer to stand up from a chair. New thin materials that can contract when electricity is applied could provide a little assistance to help people to walk faster or further. We’ve also demonstrated air-driven waistbands to expand at a push of a button. These bands placed throughout a garment could make it very easy to put them on and off quickly. A BBC video showing some of the technology developed in Bristol Robotics

lab is here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/technology-45552016/the-hi-tech-trousers-inspired-by-wallace-and-gromit

The team from Nottingham University have been able to print smart sheets of silicone which contain a very fine and strong material called ‘graphene’, the blended material expands and contracts in response to electrical input from a control device. The potential for assistance from a lightweight garment printed from this thin material is very great – we found that a printed sheet weighing less than one gram can lift a 280g steel rod.

Functional Electrical Stimulation

The team from Southampton University have developed new electrode arrays that can be

embedded within clothing. These electrodes can apply electrical stimulation to muscle groups

to help people to use their own muscles during movements. To control the system, the team

have developed miniature electronic circuitry that is also worn by the user, making the device

Stretchy graphene silicon material

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discreet and as close to normal clothing as possible. We are currently trialing this technology

with a group of people with stroke to determine how well it assists them.

Different designs of electrode arrays Prototype of sleeve with embedded electrodes

Determining the right intelligent control for devices to help people walk.

Trousers to help people to move and walk will need to have an intelligent control system to

enable them to work out how to assist people to walk or get from sitting to standing. The

robotics team, at the University of Leeds, have designed, developed and implemented a set

of computational algorithms (mathematical rules) for recognition of common everyday

movements. The algorithms are crucial to allow wearable robots to know the correct time to

deliver safe and intelligent assistance to the wearer to perform activities such as walking,

climbing ramps and stairs, and moving from sitting to standing and standing to sitting. The

researchers have also developed a wearable ankle device that, together with the algorithms,

has shown to be a promising method to provide timely control for helping a person to lift

their toe to clear the ground when walking.

Wearable ankle robot for

assistance to foot drop

Recognition of walking activities with wearable sensor

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The team from the University of Strathclyde have studied people’s movements using a

motion analysis system.

From the recordings made, they have developed some sets of

mathematical rules for computer-aided assessment of walking

and other movements. The sets of rules, called algorithms, can

determine the timing and amount of movement that occurs at

joints in the limb during the movements. Compared to

conventional gait analysis methods, in which anatomical

landmarks are used to define the joints, the application of the

new algorithms will give a more accurate and reliable

information to use for controlling the trousers. The new method

will also be valuable for clinical gait assessment in future.

Together the research teams at Strathclyde and Leeds have developed a real-time wearable

gait measurement system. The system uses two miniature motion sensors that attach to the

shank and foot respectively and provides continuous detection of the timing and ankle angles

during weight bearing and swing phases of the gait pattern. This system will be used in foot

lift assistive wearables to provide sensory feedback needed for the controlling the device.

Manufacturing the trousers of the future

At the University of Leeds, the manufacturing science team (fmp.leeds.ac.uk) have developed unique apparatus that allows the efficient production of artificial muscles. The automated and computer-controlled nature of this process is important to provide reliable function of artificial muscles whilst allowing them to be produced in the high numbers required as we

progress beyond our research phase. The new manufacturing process (directed aerosol deposition) allows us to create artificial muscles on a variety of surfaces and with a great range of possible designs. This means that the material can be created within clothing and allow full customisation of designs and muscle function based on an individual’s needs.

What’s next

Now that the fundamental technology for powering, controlling and manufacturing The Right

Trousers has been demonstrated, we need to start clinical trials to try them out on real

people! Beyond that, a company or corporate sponsor will take the technology from its

current (lab-based) level to everyday life. Project leader, Professor Jonathan Rossiter says –

Body position markers for recording limb motion

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One question I always get asked is "when can we buy these in the shops?" At the start of the

project I cautiously said 10 years. Now I more confidently say about 7 years. This progress

has only been possible with the help of our user group (and the research teams across our six

universities of course.)

To wrap up, here’s our vision for

Wearable Soft Robotics for

Independent Living: combining all the

technology we have developed into

The Right Trousers of the future! A

textiles designer, Poppy Thorn made a

demonstrator so that we could show

people how the Right Trousers might

look in the years to come.

The Right Trousers Team

We’ll be keeping our mailing list of supporters for 12 months, so that we can tell you of any updates in our funding of new projects relating to the Right Trousers. However, if you would like to be removed from the database please let Ailie Turton know.

Contact for newsletter:

Dr Ailie Turton,

University of the West of England, Glenside Campus, Blackberry Hill, Bristol, BS16 1DD Telephone messages: 0117 3288504, Email: Ailie.Turton@uwe.ac.uk