Kirigami Shoe Grips Could Help Reduce Risk of Falling Among Older Adults

Researchers at Harvard University's John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have invented pop-up shoe grips, inspired by snake skin, that boost friction between the shoe and the ground to reduce the risk of falling among older adults, reports News-Medical . A study in Nature Biomedical Engineering details the shoe grips' development, which tapped the Japanese art of paper cutting known as kirigami to emulate the snake scales. The team fabricated the gripper from a thin, flexible steel sheet with dozens of scale-like cuts. The cuts pop out into spikes when the sheet stretches, digging into the ground and creating friction. The spikes fold back in when the foot flattens, and MIT's Sahab Babaee said "we designed these assistive grippers to pop out when weight shifts from the heel to the toe and the shoe bends and stretches along the soles." SEAS' Ahmad Rafsanjani added that the cuts were made at precise points to ensure stiffness and pop-out "at the best possible angle of attack to maximize the grip of the kirigami with the contacting surface."