Illiustration of the TruST. Source: Sunil Agrawal and Victor Santamaria/Columbia EngineeringEngineers from New York’s Columbia University have developed a robotic trunk to assist those with spinal cord injuries.

The device, which is called the Trunk Support Trainer, or TruST, can reportedly help improve the stability and trunk control of spinal cord injury patients confined to wheelchairs, thereby expanding their seated workspace.

The team of Columbia University engineers developed the motorized belt, which is worn on the user’s upper torso, to prevent spinal cord injury patients from falling over and for keeping them in place so that they do not have to rely on their hands for balance. To do this, the belt detects the wearer’s upper body movements that are beyond their postural stability limits and the belt corresponds by delivering force to the wearer’s torso.

During testing of the belt, the team of Columbia University engineers determined that spinal cord injury patients were able to expand their sitting workspace, moving their respective trunks farther than they could without the belt and without the risk of falling over.

Columbia University is just the latest in a line of researchers to develop technology to tackle mobility issues. Recently, researchers from the University of Grenoble and Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Grenoble developed a four-limb robotic exoskeleton that operates via brain signals to restore limb function to those suffering from quadriplegia. Similarly, tech giant Intel in conjunction with scientists from Brown University in Rhode Island are enabling patients with spinal cord injuries to move their limbs again with help from artificial intelligence (AI).

The robotic trunk is detailed in the journal Spinal Cord Series and Cases.