Active ankle foot orthosis
First Claim
1. A variable-impedance active ankle foot orthosis comprising:
- an actuator comprising a motor operatively coupled to a spring; and
a controller for modulating an impedance of an orthotic joint during a walking cycle for treating an ankle foot gait pathology by modulating deflection of the spring with the motor.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
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.
-
Citations
28 Claims
-
1. A variable-impedance active ankle foot orthosis comprising:
-
an actuator comprising a motor operatively coupled to a spring; and a controller for modulating an impedance of an orthotic joint during a walking cycle for treating an ankle foot gait pathology by modulating deflection of the spring with the motor. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
-
-
13. A device for treating an ankle foot gait pathology comprising:
-
an orthosis including a leg portion attachable to a leg of a person and a foot portion attachable to a foot of the person defining an orthotic joint; and a motorized actuator attachable to the leg portion, the actuator comprising a motor operatively coupled to a spring, wherein deflection of the spring is adapted to be modulated by the motor. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
-
-
21. A method for modulating an impedance of an orthotic joint of an orthosis during a walking cycle, the method comprising the steps of:
-
providing an orthosis comprising a motor operatively coupled to a spring; and modulating deflection of the spring with the motor to modulate an impedance of an orthotic joint defined by the orthosis. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25)
-
-
26. A method of treating an ankle foot gait pathology using functional electrical stimulation, the method comprising:
applying electrical pulses to elicit muscle contractions to actively modulate ankle impedance to achieve at least one of torsional spring control during controlled plantar flexion, a minimized impedance during late stance, and a spring-damper positional control during a swing phase. - View Dependent Claims (27, 28)
Specification