Preliminary Evaluation of a Wearable Thruster for Arresting Backwards Falls

This paper presents preliminary results assessing the efficacy of a backpack-worn cold-gas thruster to potentially arrest impending backwards falls. Specifically, a nitrogen-based cold gas thruster system was integrated into a backpack-worn prototype device, and experiments were conducted to assess the effect of the wearable device on backwards falls. Although the device is eventually intended for individuals at fall risk, these preliminary experiments were conducted on three healthy subjects. The experiments compared each subject’s ability to recover from an impending fall with and without assistance from the thruster. Results suggest that the likelihood of a fall was substantially reduced with the thruster assistance.