New 'exoskeleton' technology can help protect seniors from slips and falls

— -- For seniors stuck using a cane or walker to stay on their feet, there soon may be a new way to get around without falling: an exoskeleton.

Researchers in Italy have created a wearable robotic system designed to use torque to help prevents people from slipping and falling, according to a report published yesterday in Scientific Reports.

The teams at from the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and the Don Carlo Gnocchi Foundation Mission studied a small group, including eight elderly people and two amputees, and the preliminary results were promising.

"Our study revealed that a wearable robotic platform can effectively interact with humans during reactive motor responses, such as accidental slipping," Dr. Vito Monaco, lead author of the study and expert in locomotion biomechanics at the Don Carlo Gnocchi Foundation Mission said in a statement. "These results open new perspectives for researchers who are expected to develop robotic platforms for enhancing human capabilities all day long."

Falls may seem like a small risk, but they are the number one cause of injuries and deaths from injury among older Americans, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Older Americans experienced 29 million falls causing seven million injuries in 2014. Those falls cost an estimated $31 billion in annual Medicare costs, according to the CDC.

To test if the robotic exoskeleton they developed could help reverse falls, the researchers had the subjects wear the device and walk on the treadmill while wearing a safety harness. The treadmill would start normally and periodically jerk forward, causing the subjects to slip.

The device worked by recognizing that a person was falling and then applying counteracting "torque" to the body to help a person regain their balance.

They found that those wearing the exoskeleton when it was activated were better able to keep their balance without losing their center of mass as much as if they were not wearing it.

While the research is in the early stages, this could help researchers develop an assistive device that could help the elderly stay on their feet -- or at least be an upgrade from current walkers, canes or wheelchairs.