Shoulder-wearable soft robot for assisting older adults in scapular stretching
Kosuke Isobe, Masakazu Hirokawa, Yasuhiro Suzuki, Hideki Kadone, Yukiyo Shimizu, Kenji Suzuki · 2026
Read Shoulder-wearable soft robot for assisting older adults in scapular stretching by Kosuke Isobe, Masakazu Hirokawa, Yasuhiro Suzuki, Hideki Kadone, Yukiyo Shimizu, Kenji Suzuki (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13280861.txt.
Description
Kosuke Isobe and five co-workers wrote a 2026 paper on a soft shoulder robot that helps older adults stretch their shoulder blades. Thoracic stretching aids breathing rehab, but stiff aging joints need a therapist's hands. Their wearable brace pulls both shoulders with cables. Two small actuators draw the shoulders back and out together.
The pull paths copy how a therapist's hands move the shoulder's ball joint. Control targets a set tension at a target pose. Trials with older adults showed stretches matching a therapist's work. The team aims to ease the long-term load on rehab staff.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Kosuke Isobe, Masakazu Hirokawa, Yasuhiro Suzuki, Hideki Kadone, Yukiyo Shimizu, Kenji Suzuki |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 74 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |