Design of the Playskin Air™: A User-Controlled, Soft Pneumatic Exoskeleton

Many children have an upper extremity disability leaving them unable to explore the environment around them. Hard exoskeletons can provide support to lift a child’s arms up against gravity, but these devices are generally large and obtrusive leading to low adherence. Children often prefer to have limited arm function rather than wearing such a device. Our lab has previously designed a passive soft exoskeleton to lift children’s arms, but this did not allow for user control and was limited in the length and weight of arm it could support. Building off of this research, we have created the preliminary design for a user-controlled pneumatic soft exoskeleton that may allow users to independently raise and lower their arms.