Locomotion plays a crucial role on the capacity to perform activities of daily living, personal functional abilities, and independent development in the community. However, such ability can be impaired due to clinical conditions. In order to overcome or attenuate gait disorders, assistance devices, such as wearable robots and smart walkers, as well as systems for the assessment and control of a person’s physical incapacities, have been proposed. In addition, a trend in wearable robotics involves the use of flexible materials in the robot’s structure and actuation aiming to obtain a user-friendly interface that can extend the capabilities of conventional rigid robots, so-called soft robotics. An emerging technology for the instrumentation of gait assistance and rehabilitation devices are optical sensors which include mainly optical fiber sensors. Some of the advantages of such sensors are their electromagnetic field immunity, chemical stability, compactness and multiplexing capabilities. To that extent, different technologies for optical fiber sensing have been proposed, ranging from low-cost systems to approaches with high multiplexing capabilities. For these reasons, different polymers have been studied for the development of, not only the actuators for soft robotics applications, but also for the instrumentation of these devices. Therefore, in this Special Issue, the development, characterization and application of flexible sensors and actuators for novel wearable solutions will be presented. In this context, wearable robotics is a growing research and application area at the intersection of health and engineering. The next generation of robots and devices for rehabilitation purposes points towards the application of flexible and more transparent structures and actuators that adapt better to the human body. Sensing and control technologies for such devices also include some important challenges. Further, advanced sensing materials are at the core of the next generation of robots and devices for rehabilitation and linked areas with a close intersection of health and engineering are the aim of this Special Issue as is the development of novel concepts of multifunctional and interactive solutions. Contributions can range from fundamental properties of materials, their processing and characterization, as well as innovations in processing technologies for the development of applications.
Keywords: Optical fiber sensors; Flexible materials in bulk; Polymer and silica fiber devices; Sensing applications; Flexible sensor solutions; Data processing for wearable robotics; Low cost optical solutions for flexible sensing; Wearable Robotics; Sensor technologies; Actuator; Soft robotics.