TY - GEN
T1 - Design and Evaluation of an Active/Semiactive Ankle-Foot Orthosis for Gait Training
AU - Zhang, Yufeng
AU - Kleinmann, Roger J.
AU - Nolan, Karen J.
AU - Zanotto, Damiano
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 IEEE.
PY - 2018/10/9
Y1 - 2018/10/9
N2 - Neuromusclar disorders such as stroke often cause walking impairments. During walking, the ankle joint contributes the largest propulsive moment and plays a vital role in shaping a normal gait pattern. The goal of this paper is to introduce a novel powered ankle-foot orthosis (AFO) for gait rehabilitation named Stevens Ankle-Foot Electromechanical (SAFE) orthosis. Unlike other powered AFOs, the SAFE orthosis features two alternative actuation modes: Fully-active and semi-active. The former employs two BLDC motors to provide plantar and dorsiflexion torques; the latter replaces the dorsiflexion side motor with a set of linear springs. This design provides a direct way to investigate how the introduction of a passive antagonistic element may affect the performance of a powered AFO. Initial results from bench testing indicate that the performance of the two actuation modes are comparable in terms of device transparency and torque tracking. Possible implications for the design of future powered AFOs are discussed in the paper.
AB - Neuromusclar disorders such as stroke often cause walking impairments. During walking, the ankle joint contributes the largest propulsive moment and plays a vital role in shaping a normal gait pattern. The goal of this paper is to introduce a novel powered ankle-foot orthosis (AFO) for gait rehabilitation named Stevens Ankle-Foot Electromechanical (SAFE) orthosis. Unlike other powered AFOs, the SAFE orthosis features two alternative actuation modes: Fully-active and semi-active. The former employs two BLDC motors to provide plantar and dorsiflexion torques; the latter replaces the dorsiflexion side motor with a set of linear springs. This design provides a direct way to investigate how the introduction of a passive antagonistic element may affect the performance of a powered AFO. Initial results from bench testing indicate that the performance of the two actuation modes are comparable in terms of device transparency and torque tracking. Possible implications for the design of future powered AFOs are discussed in the paper.
KW - Powered AFO
KW - Powered Orthoses
KW - Robot-Assisted Gait Training
KW - Wearable Robotics
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U2 - 10.1109/BIOROB.2018.8487973
DO - 10.1109/BIOROB.2018.8487973
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85056603023
T3 - Proceedings of the IEEE RAS and EMBS International Conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics
SP - 544
EP - 549
BT - BIOROB 2018 - 7th IEEE International Conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics
T2 - 7th IEEE RAS/EMBS International Conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics, BIOROB 2018
Y2 - 26 August 2018 through 29 August 2018
ER -