Abstract

Doc number: 20

Abstract: Loss of physical mobility makes maximal participation in desired activities more difficult and in the worst case fully prevents participation. This paper surveys recent work in assistive technology to improve mobility for persons with a disability, drawing on examples observed during a tour of academic and industrial research sites in Europe. The underlying theme of this recent work is a more seamless integration of the capabilities of the user and the assistive technology. This improved integration spans diverse technologies, including powered wheelchairs, prosthetic limbs, functional electrical stimulation, and wearable exoskeletons. Improved integration is being accomplished in three ways: 1) improving the assistive technology mechanics; 2) improving the user-technology physical interface; and 3) sharing of control between the user and the technology. We provide an overview of these improvements in user-technology integration and discuss whether such improvements have the potential to be transformative for people with mobility impairments.

Details

Title
Recent trends in assistive technology for mobility
Author
Cowan, Rachel E; Fregly, Benjamin J; Boninger, Michael L; Chan, Leighton; Rodgers, Mary M; Reinkensmeyer, David J
Pages
20
Publication year
2012
Publication date
2012
Publisher
BioMed Central
e-ISSN
1743-0003
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/1743-0003-9-20
ProQuest document ID
1030014003
Copyright
© 2012 Cowan et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.