A soft, wearable device that mimics the muscles, tendons and ligaments of the lower leg could aid in the rehabilitation of patients with ankle-foot disorders. This is the claim of Yong-Lae Park, an assistant professor of robotics at Carnegie Mellon University. He worked with collaborators at Harvard University, the University of Southern California, MIT and Massachusetts-based BioSensics to develop an active orthotic device using soft plastics and composite materials instead of a rigid exoskeleton.
