Active ankle foot orthosis
First Claim
1. An autonomous motorized permanent assistance leg device comprising:
- an ankle angle sensor;
a controller using information from the sensor to determine a phase of gait; and
a motorized actuator controlled by the controller to continually modulate a characteristic of the device based on the phase of gait.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An Active Ankle Foot Orthosis (AAFO) is provided where the impedance of an orthotic joint is modulated throughout the walking cycle to treat ankle foot gait pathology, such as drop foot gait. During controlled plantar flexion, a biomimetic torsional spring control is applied where orthotic joint stiffness is actively adjusted to minimize forefoot collisions with the ground. Throughout late stance, joint impedance is minimized so as not to impede powered plantar flexion movements, and during the swing phase, a torsional spring-damper (PD) control lifts the foot to provide toe clearance. To assess the clinical effects of variable-impedance control, kinetic and kinematic gait data were collected on two drop foot participants wearing the AAFO. It has been found that actively adjusting joint impedance reduces the occurrence of slap foot, allows greater powered plantar flexion, and provides for less kinematic difference during swing when compared to normals.
388 Citations
30 Claims
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1. An autonomous motorized permanent assistance leg device comprising:
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an ankle angle sensor; a controller using information from the sensor to determine a phase of gait; and a motorized actuator controlled by the controller to continually modulate a characteristic of the device based on the phase of gait. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
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27. An autonomous motorized permanent assistance leg device comprising:
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a sensor; a controller using information from the sensor to determine a phase of gait; a motorized actuator; and a controller adapted to employ a stance phase positive force feedback in controlling the actuator. - View Dependent Claims (28, 29, 30)
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Specification