Towards a Novel Wearable Robotic Vest for Hemorrhage Suppression

TL;DR

This paper presents a novel wearable robotic vest with a shape-changing ring mechanism and inflatable components designed to control severe bleeding in emergency and space environments.

Contribution

It introduces a new adjustable, shape-changing robotic system with inflatable pressure application for hemorrhage suppression in diverse anatomical regions.

Findings

Successful control of simulated bleeding in tests

Effective shape adaptation for different body regions

Identified limitations in coverage area and anatomical conformity

Abstract

This paper introduces a novel robotic system designed to manage severe bleeding in emergency scenarios, including unique environments like space stations. The robot features a shape-adjustable "ring mechanism", transitioning from a circular to an elliptical configuration to adjust wound coverage across various anatomical regions. We developed various arms for this ring mechanism with varying flexibilities to improve adaptability when applied to non-extremities of the body (abdomen, back, neck, etc.). To apply equal and constant pressure across the wound, we developed an inflatable ring and airbag balloon that are compatible with this shape-changing ring mechanism. A series of experiments focused on evaluating various ring arm configurations to characterize their bending stiffness. Subsequent experiments measured the force exerted by the airbag balloon system using a digital scale. Despite its promising performance, certain limitations related to coverage area are identified. The shape-changing effect of the device is limited to scenarios involving partially inflated or deflated airbag balloons, and cannot fully conform to complex anatomical regions. Finally, the device was tested on casualty simulation kits, where it successfully demonstrated its ability to control simulated bleeding.