A LIGHTER LOAD: Unlike rigid, full-body exoskeletons, newer robotic devices, such as this ankle-assisting exosuit, could help stroke patients recover a normal gait, and are lightweight and soft for greater comfort.ROLEX AWARDS/ FRED MERZ
In Conor Walsh’s engineering lab at Harvard University, no one looks askance at a staff member wearing a loudly whirring backpack, with wires snaking out and down his leg. A trio of sewing machines have their own workroom. A dozen pairs of identical hiking boots neatly fill a shoe rack on the far side of a treadmill. A disembodied glove clenches and straightens as air fills and drains from its fingers.
All of this equipment is aimed at helping people move faster, more smoothly, while expending less energy. Walsh, also a core faculty member at Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, is most excited about the devices his group is designing for stroke patients, who often struggle to regain their strength and fluidity of ...
