Robotic Materials Article 2025

A robotic and virtual testing platform highlighting the promise of soft wearable actuators for wrist tremor suppression

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Nearly 80 million people in the world deal with medical conditions that cause involuntary periodic movements known as tremors. Wearable soft robotic devices offer a potential solution for actively suppressing these tremors. However, existing prototypes face limitations in actuation performance and complex testing procedures. We present a comprehensive approach for the rapid evaluation of emerging wearable tremor-suppression technologies. This method combines reproducing patient-recorded tremor episodes and measuring tremor suppression in a robotic platform, termed a "mechanical patient", with validation of the achieved suppression performance of soft actuators via biomechanical modeling, thereby avoiding time-consuming clinical testing in the early stages of development. Using this approach, we highlight that an antagonistic pair of slim and lightweight electrohydraulic actuators can effectively …

Author(s): Shagan Shomron, Alona and Chase-Markopoulou, Christina and Walter, Johannes R and Sellhorn-Timm, Johanna and Shao, Yitian and Nadler, Tobias and Benson, Audrey and Wochner, Isabell and Rumley, Ellen H and Wurster, Isabel and Klocke, Philipp and Weiss, Daniel, and Schmitt, Syn and Keplinger, Christoph and Haeufle, Daniel FB
Journal: Device
Pages: 100719
Year: 2025
Month: March
Day: 06
Bibtex Type: Article (article)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.device.2025.100719
State: Published
URL: https://www.cell.com/device/fulltext/S2666-9986(25)00032-8

BibTex

@article{ShaganShomron25-De-Tremor,
  title = {A robotic and virtual testing platform highlighting the promise of soft wearable actuators for wrist tremor suppression},
  journal = {Device},
  abstract = {Nearly 80 million people in the world deal with medical conditions that cause involuntary periodic movements known as tremors. Wearable soft robotic devices offer a potential solution for actively suppressing these tremors. However, existing prototypes face limitations in actuation performance and complex testing procedures. We present a comprehensive approach for the rapid evaluation of emerging wearable tremor-suppression technologies. This method combines reproducing patient-recorded tremor episodes and measuring tremor suppression in a robotic platform, termed a "mechanical patient", with validation of the achieved suppression performance of soft actuators via biomechanical modeling, thereby avoiding time-consuming clinical testing in the early stages of development. Using this approach, we highlight that an antagonistic pair of slim and lightweight electrohydraulic actuators can effectively …},
  pages = {100719},
  month = mar,
  year = {2025},
  slug = {shaganshomron25-de-tremor},
  author = {Shagan Shomron, Alona and Chase-Markopoulou, Christina and Walter, Johannes R and Sellhorn-Timm, Johanna and Shao, Yitian and Nadler, Tobias and Benson, Audrey and Wochner, Isabell and Rumley, Ellen H and Wurster, Isabel and Klocke, Philipp and Weiss, Daniel and Schmitt, Syn and Keplinger, Christoph and Haeufle, Daniel FB},
  url = {https://www.cell.com/device/fulltext/S2666-9986(25)00032-8},
  month_numeric = {3}
}