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Stanford researchers create robotic boot that helps people walk

By Brianna Wessling | October 13, 2022

Engineers at Stanford University have created a boot-like robotic exoskeleton that can increase walking speed and reduce walking effort in the real world outside of the lab. The team’s research was published in Nature. 

The exoskeleton gives users personalized walking assistance, allowing people to walk 9% faster and use 17% less energy per distance traveled. The energy savings and speed boost that the exoskeleton provides is equivalent to taking off a 30-pound backpack, according to the team. 

The goal is to help people with mobility impairments, especially older people, to more easily move throughout the world, and the Standford team believes that its technology will be ready for commercialization in the next few years. 

Using a motor that works with calf muscles, the robotic boot gives wearers an extra push with every step. The push is personalized using a machine learning-based model that was trained through years of work with emulators, or large, immobile and expensive lab setups that can rapidly test how to best assist people. 

Students and volunteers were hooked up to the exoskeleton emulators while researchers collected motion and energy expenditure data. This data helped the research team to understand how the way a person walks with the exoskeleton relates to how much energy they’re using. The team gained more details about the relative benefits of different kinds of assistance offered by the emulator, and used the information to inform a machine-learning model that the real-world exoskeleton now uses to adapt to each wearer. 

To adapt to an individual’s unique way of walking, the exoskeleton will provide a slightly different pattern of assistance each time the user walks. The exoskeleton then measures the resulting motion so that the machine learning model can determine how to better assist the user the next time they walk. In total, it takes the exoskeleton about an hour to customize its support to a new user. 

Moving forward, the Stanford researchers hope to test what the exoskeleton can do for its target demographic, older adults and people who are experiencing mobility decline from disability. The team also wants to plan design variations that target improving balance and reducing joint pain, and work with commercial partners to turn the device into a product. 

About The Author

Brianna Wessling

Brianna Wessling is an Associate Editor, Robotics, WTWH Media. She joined WTWH Media in November 2021, after graduating from the University of Kansas with degrees in Journalism and English. She covers a wide range of robotics topics, but specializes in women in robotics, autonomous vehicles, and space robotics.

She can be reached at bwessling@wtwhmedia.com

Comments

  1. Rick Cole says

    October 14, 2022 at 12:46 am

    I have paralyzed left leg fro stroke In 2002 and more recently with Neuropathy.
    Would like to try these boots
    How do I get/ evaluate them
    Exciting Thanks Mucho
    Rick
    😎😎🏋🏻‍♂️🏋🏻‍♂️

    Reply
  2. Georgia Mark says

    April 26, 2023 at 12:06 am

    I have Parkinson’s and my main problem is with balance
    Could these “boots” help me to walk without falling ?
    I am a retired RN and I worked in the Stanford OR many years ago.
    Would I be able to try these” boots”

    Reply
  3. ryan harbert says

    November 12, 2023 at 1:43 pm

    i also had a stroke back in 2016 leaving my left paralized, is it possible to wear just one boot on that leg instead of my brace.How much would these boots cost,im sure its too soon to know this,im sick of living in a wheelchair,thanks

    Reply

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