Robotic TruST to train people with spinal cord injuries

Columbia Engineering’s TruST is expected to help people with spinal cord injuries (SCI) sit more stably by improving trunk control, which then expands a person’s active sitting workspace without them falling over or using their hands to balance. The study is described in Spinal Cord Series and Cases.

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"We designed TruST for people with SCIs who are typically wheelchair users," said Sunil Agrawal, the project's principal investigator and professor of mechanical engineering and of rehabilitation and regenerative medicine. "We found that TruST not only prevents patients from falling, but also maximises trunk movements beyond patients' postural control, or balance limits."

According to the university, TruST is a motorised-cable driven belt placed on the user's torso to determine the postural control limits and sitting workspace area in people with SCI. It is said to deliver forces on the torso when the user performs upper body movements beyond the postural stability limits while sitting.