Developing an Active Ankle Foot Orthosis Based on Shape Memory Alloy Actuators

Author(s):  
Ehsan Tarkesh ◽  
Mohammad H. Elahinia ◽  
Mohamed Samir Hefzy

This paper is on development of an active ankle foot orthosis (AAFO). This device will fill the gap in the existing research aimed at helping patients with drop foot muscle deficiencies as well as rehabilitation activities. Drop foot patients are unable to lift their foot because of reduced or no muscle activity around the ankle. The major causes of drop foot are severing of the nerve, stroke, cerebral palsy and multiple sclerosis. There are two common complications from drop foot. First, the patient cannot control the falling of their foot after heel strike, so that it slaps the ground on every step. The second complication is the inability to clear the toe during swing. This causes the patients to drag their toe on the ground throughout the swing.

2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liberty Deberg ◽  
Masood Taheri Andani ◽  
Milad Hosseinipour ◽  
Mohammad Elahinia

Shape memory alloys (SMAs) provide compact and effective actuation for a variety of mechanical systems. In this work, the distinguished superelastic behavior of these materials is utilized to develop a passive ankle foot orthosis to address the drop foot disability. Design, modeling, and experimental evaluation of an SMA orthosis employed in an ankle foot orthosis (AFO) are presented in this paper. To evaluate the improvements achieved with this new device, a prototype is fabricated and motion analysis is performed on a drop foot patient. Results are presented to demonstrate the performance of the proposed orthosis.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmad Alminnawi ◽  
Yo Kobayashi ◽  
Tomohiro Otani ◽  
Masao Tanaka

Clinics ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paulo Roberto Garcia Lucareli ◽  
Mário de Oliveira Lima ◽  
Juliane Gomes de Almeida Lucarelli ◽  
Fernanda Púpio Silva Lima

2014 ◽  
Vol 30 (6) ◽  
pp. 728-731 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yvette L. Kerkum ◽  
Merel-Anne Brehm ◽  
Annemieke I. Buizer ◽  
Josien C. van den Noort ◽  
Jules G. Becher ◽  
...  

A rigid ventral shelf ankle foot orthosis (AFO) may improve gait in children with spastic cerebral palsy (SCP) whose gait is characterized by excessive knee flexion in stance. However, these AFOs can also impede ankle range of motion (ROM) and thereby inhibit push-off power. A more spring-like AFO can enhance push-off and may potentially reduce walking energy cost. The recent development of an adjustable spring-hinged AFO now allows adjustment of AFO stiffness, enabling tuning toward optimal gait performance. This study aims to quantify the mechanical properties of this spring-hinged AFO for each of its springs and settings. Using an AFO stiffness tester, two AFO hinges and their accompanying springs were measured. The springs showed a stiffness range of 0.01−1.82 N·m·deg−1. The moment-threshold increased with increasing stiffness (1.13–12.1 N·m), while ROM decreased (4.91–16.5°). Energy was returned by all springs (11.5–116.3 J). These results suggest that the two stiffest available springs should improve joint kinematics and enhance push-off in children with SCP walking with excessive knee flexion.


Author(s):  
Mariana Ribeiro Volpini Lana ◽  
Joana Pimenta Maia ◽  
Anderson Antônio Horta ◽  
Sérgio Teixeira da Fonseca ◽  
Marcella Guimarães Assis

2018 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 547-558 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Berenpas ◽  
Sven Schiemanck ◽  
Anita Beelen ◽  
Frans Nollet ◽  
Vivian Weerdesteyn ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
IlHyun Son ◽  
GyuChang Lee

Abstract Background: It has been reported the effects of a hinged ankle-foot orthosis on the gait ability of children with cerebral palsy. However, no studies investigated the effects of the dorsiflexion angle of the hinged ankle-foot orthosis on the spatiotemporal gait parameters of children with cerebral palsy. This study aimed to investigate the immediate effects of a 10° dorsiflexion inducing ankle-foot orthosis the spatiotemporal gait parameters of children with spastic diplegia compared to barefoot and a hinged ankle-foot orthosis.Methods: This study was cross-over design. 10 children with spastic diplegia were walked with barefoot, a hinged ankle-foot orthosis, and a 10° dorsiflexion inducing ankle-foot orthosis. GAITRite was used to collect the spatiotemporal gait parameters including gait velocity, cadence, step length, stride length, single leg support, and double leg support. Results: It showed that a 10° dorsiflexion inducing ankle-foot orthosis significantly improved the gait velocity, cadence, step length, stride length, single leg support, and double leg support than barefoot and a hinged ankle-foot orthosis (p<.05). Conclusion: The results of this study implied that a 10° dorsiflexion inducing ankle-foot orthosis could improve the gait ability of children with spastic diplegia more than barefoot or a hinged ankle-foot orthosis. High quality future studies will need to examine the effects of hinged ankle-foot orthosis on gait ability according to dorsiflexion angles.


2021 ◽  
Vol Publish Ahead of Print ◽  
Author(s):  
Sivaporn Limpaninlachat ◽  
Saipin Prasertsukdee ◽  
Robert J. Palisano ◽  
Joshua Burns ◽  
Jaranit Kaewkungwal ◽  
...  

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