ROBOTIC EXOSKELETON TO REVOLUTIONIZE BRACING (Orthopedics This Week)
Columbia Engineers have crafted the first device that measures 3D stiffness of the human torso, providing hope for children with spine deformities such as idiopathic scoliosis and kyphosis.
The related study, “Robotic Spine Exoskeleton (RoSE): Characterizing the Three-dimensional Stiffness of the Human Torso in the Treatment of Spine Deformity,” appears in the March 30, 2018 edition of IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering.
Co-author Sunil K. Agrawal, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Rehabilitative and Regenerative Medicine and director of The Robotics and Rehabilitation (RoAR) Lab at Columbia University, told OTW, “Many children with idiopathic scoliosis undergo bracing.”
“However, all braces are designed to be static, i.e., do not modulate the external forces over time. Also, it is also not known how modulating these forces applied externally by the brace affects the posture of the upper body.”
“These were the motivations for the design of our robotic spine brace which allows us to study displacements of the upper body in response to applied forces.”
“The design of the brace was...
