Wearable technologies for assisted mobility in the real world

Shuo Gao; Jianan Chen; Yunjia Xia; Xuemeng Li; Weihao Ma; Huixin Yang; Jinchen Li; Xinkai Zhou; Tianyu Jia; Yuchen Xu; Julie Uchitel; Dean Ta; Peng Qi; Junbo Ge; Yi Guo; Yajie Qin; Inseung Kang; Wenyao Xu; He Li; Jinke Chang; Siming Zuo; Shiwei Wang; Shan Luo; Letizia Gionfrida; Chen Hu; Shuqin Dong; Yongxin Guo; Yixuan Yuan; Haixia Zhang; Haotian Chen; Yu Pan; Chenyun Dai; Qinyuan Ren; Rui Loureiro; Tom Carlson; Wei Chen; Yuanting Zhang; Panicos Kyriacou; Hadi Heidari; Kia Nazarpour; Themis Prodromakis; Alexander Casson; Tamar R Makin; Gert Cauwenberghs; Dario Farina; Hubin Zhao

doi:10.1038/s41467-025-67126-4

Wearable technologies for assisted mobility in the real world

Nat Commun. 2025 Dec 8;16(1):10988. doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-67126-4.

Authors

Shuo Gao^#¹, Jianan Chen^#², Yunjia Xia^#², Xuemeng Li^#³, Weihao Ma³, Huixin Yang², Jinchen Li², Xinkai Zhou², Tianyu Jia⁴, Yuchen Xu⁵, Julie Uchitel⁶, Dean Ta⁷, Peng Qi⁸, Junbo Ge⁹, Yi Guo⁷, Yajie Qin⁷, Inseung Kang¹⁰, Wenyao Xu¹¹, He Li¹², Jinke Chang^{2

13}, Siming Zuo¹⁴, Shiwei Wang¹⁵, Shan Luo¹⁶, Letizia Gionfrida¹⁷, Chen Hu¹⁷, Shuqin Dong¹⁸, Yongxin Guo^{18

19}, Yixuan Yuan²⁰, Haixia Zhang²¹, Haotian Chen²², Yu Pan²³, Chenyun Dai²⁴, Qinyuan Ren²⁵, Rui Loureiro², Tom Carlson², Wei Chen²⁶, Yuanting Zhang²⁰, Panicos Kyriacou²⁷, Hadi Heidari¹⁴, Kia Nazarpour²⁸, Themis Prodromakis¹⁵, Alexander Casson²⁹, Tamar R Makin³⁰, Gert Cauwenberghs³¹, Dario Farina³², Hubin Zhao³³

Affiliations

¹ School of Instrumentation and Optoelectronic Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing, China. shuo_gao@buaa.edu.cn.
² HUB of Intelligent Neuro-engineering, CREATe, Division of Surgery and Interventional Science, UCL, London, UK.
³ School of Instrumentation and Optoelectronic Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing, China.
⁴ Department of Bioengineering, Imperial College London, London, UK.
⁵ Shu Chien-Gene Lay Department of Bioengineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.
⁶ School of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
⁷ College of Biomedical Engineering, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
⁸ Department of Control Science and Engineering, College of Electronic and Information Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, China.
⁹ Department of Cardiology, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases, Shanghai, China.
¹⁰ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
¹¹ The Embedded Sensing and Computing (ESC) group, Department of Computer Science & Engineering, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, Buffalo, NY, USA.
¹² School of Electronic Science and Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China.
¹³ Multifunctional Materials and Composites (MMC) Laboratory, Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
¹⁴ Microelectronics Lab (meLAB), James Watt School of Engineering, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK.
¹⁵ Centre for Electronics Frontiers, Institute for Integrated Micro and Nano Systems, School of Engineering, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.
¹⁶ Robot Perception Lab (RPL), Department of Engineering, King's College London, London, UK.
¹⁷ Vision in Human Robotics Lab, Department of Informatics, King's College London, London, UK.
¹⁸ State Key Laboratory of Terahertz and Millimeter Waves, Department of Electrical Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China.
¹⁹ Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore.
²⁰ Department of Electronic Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China.
²¹ National Key Laboratory of Science and Technology on Micro/Nano Fabrication, Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Integrated Circuits, School of Integrated Circuits, Peking University, Beijing, China.
²² HiMEX Lab, James Watt School of Engineering, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK.
²³ Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, School of Clinical Medicine, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.
²⁴ School of Biomedical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China.
²⁵ Institute of Industrial Engineering, College of Control Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.
²⁶ School of Biomedical Engineering, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
²⁷ Research Centre for Biomedical Engineering, School of Science & Technology, City St George's, University of London, London, UK.
²⁸ Edinburgh Movement and Rehabilitation (MoveR) hub, School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.
²⁹ Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.
³⁰ MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
³¹ Shu Chien-Gene Lay Department of Bioengineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA. gcauwenberghs@ucsd.edu.
³² Department of Bioengineering, Imperial College London, London, UK. d.farina@imperial.ac.uk.
³³ HUB of Intelligent Neuro-engineering, CREATe, Division of Surgery and Interventional Science, UCL, London, UK. hubin.zhao@ucl.ac.uk.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Mobility impairments from aging, injury, or medical conditions limit independence and social participation. Conventional assistive devices lack adaptability in complex environments. Recent wearable technologies integrating neural sensing, electronics, and co-design offer personalized, responsive mobility support. This perspective focuses on advances in wearable sensing and multimodal fusion for intent recognition, environmental interaction, and adaptive control in exoskeletons, prosthetics, smart wheelchairs, and navigation systems. Emphasizing human-in-the-loop and cognitive-sensorimotor integration, it outlines emerging trends and challenges, promoting intelligent, user-centered solutions to restore function and enhance autonomy, accessibility, and inclusion for individuals with mobility impairments.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Exoskeleton Device
Humans
Self-Help Devices*
Wearable Electronic Devices*
Wheelchairs

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding