Robotic clothing which can aid walking a step closer after £11 million funding

The new VIVO Hub for Enhanced Independent Living, will work with the NHS, charities, care providers and industrial partners to develop healthcare technologies to restore the independence of older people and people with disabilities by developing in-home, on-body physical assistance devices to enhance their lives.

VIVO devices include clothing that 'puts itself on', smart garments to help prevent falls, and soft exosuits to help people get up from a chair, climb stairs and walk for longer. VIVO power clothing combines AI and digital monitoring technologies with on-body energy storage and power delivery to help people to go to the shops, meet friends and be active in their communities.

The Hub is led by the University of Bristol with partners University of the West of England (UWE), University College London (UCL), Imperial College London and the University of Strathclyde.

Project lead Professor Jonathan Rossiter, based in Bristol's Faculty of Science and Engineering and Bristol Robotics Laboratory (BRL), explained: "Smart robotic clothing has the potential to act as an enabler of movement, activity and independence for people with disability and frailty.

"The VIVO Hub aims to make clothing smarter, stronger, and more capable, helping wearers to be active for longer. Imagine robotic clothing that puts itself on in the morning, helps prevent falls, and detects when the wearer is walking up stairs and automatically gives them a power boost.

"Our ambitious vision is to redefine how we think of clothing. Smart robotic clothing is not just for fashion and warmth, but also provides health monitoring, physical assistance, rehabilitation, helping to restore an active and independent life."

Project clinical lead Professor Emily Henderson, Consultant Geriatrician based in Bristol Medical School, said: "In later life, older people can often find carrying out activities on a day-to-day basis a struggle because of difficulties with mental and physical health.

"This can have an enormous impact on their enjoyment of life as well as leading to increasing disability and the need for more care.

"It is vital that research tackles the need to support and enable older people to live independent and fulfilled lives in their own homes.

"This funding represents a pioneering and innovative approach to supporting older people by designing technologies to support older people. I anticipate that these approaches, that critically move away from drugs and medications, are likely to be safe, effective, and accessible. This is an exciting and promising horizon in enhancing and promoting wellbeing and independence in later life."

UWE lead Professor Carlos Cifuentes, Associate Professor in Human-Robot Interaction, said: "The Vivo Hub will focus on co-developing and translating technology to improve mobility and independence for older people and individuals with disabilities.

"The UWE team will work on the technology integration with all partners and lead the user studies.

"We will enhance the BRL assisted living studio to conduct realistic tests of wearable technologies during daily life activities."

According to the Health Foundation REAL Centre, the UK will require 627,000 extra care staff by 2030 to cope with its ageing population.

VIVO is one of five new hubs that will deliver a world-leading research programme focused on advancing and developing novel engineering and physical sciences research.

EPSRC Executive Chair Professor Charlotte Deane added: "The five new hubs bring together a wealth of expertise from across academia, industry and charities to improve population health, transform disease prediction and diagnosis, and accelerate the development of new interventions.

"They represent an exciting range of adventurous techniques and approaches that have great potential to improving the lives of millions of people here in the UK and across the world."