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Annual Conference Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems

TAROS 2018: Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems pp 79–90Cite as

Easy Undressing with Soft Robotics

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 10965))

Abstract

Dexterity impairments affect many people worldwide, limiting their ability to easily perform daily tasks and to be independent. Difficulty getting dressed and undressed is commonly reported. Some research has been performed on robot-assisted dressing, where an external device helps the user put on and take off clothes. However, no wearable robotic technology or robotic assistive clothing has yet been proposed that actively helps the user dress. In this article, we introduce the concept of Smart Adaptive Clothing, which uses Soft Robotic technology to assist the user in dressing and undressing. We discuss how Soft Robotic technologies can be applied to Smart Adaptive Clothing and present a proof of concept study of a Pneumatic Smart Adaptive Belt. The belt weighs only 68 g, can expand by up to 14% in less than 6 s, and is demonstrated aiding undressing on a mannequin, achieving an extremely low undressing time of 1.7 s.

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Acknowledgements

Research supported by UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council grants EP/M020460/1 and EP/M026388/1. Local graphic facilitator Bethan Mure was responsible for illustrations during focus groups described in [3]. More of Bethan’s work can be found at www.bmurecreative.co.uk

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Engineering Mathematics, University of Bristol, Bristol, BS8 1UB, UK

    Tim Helps, Majid Taghavi & Jonathan Rossiter

  2. Bristol Robotics Laboratory, Bristol, BS16 1QY, UK

    Tim Helps, Majid Taghavi & Jonathan Rossiter

  3. Faculty of Health and Applied Sciences, University of the West of England, Bristol, BS16 1DD, UK

    Sarah Manns

  4. Department of Allied Health Professions, University of the West of England, Bristol, BS16 1DD, UK

    Ailie J. Turton

Authors
  1. Tim Helps
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  2. Majid Taghavi
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  3. Sarah Manns
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  4. Ailie J. Turton
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  5. Jonathan Rossiter
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tim Helps .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of the West of England, Bristol, United Kingdom

    Manuel Giuliani

  2. University of Bath, Bath, United Kingdom

    Tareq Assaf

  3. University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom

    Maria Elena Giannaccini

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Helps, T., Taghavi, M., Manns, S., Turton, A.J., Rossiter, J. (2018). Easy Undressing with Soft Robotics. In: Giuliani, M., Assaf, T., Giannaccini, M. (eds) Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems. TAROS 2018. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 10965. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96728-8_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96728-8_7

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-96727-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-96728-8

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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