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| Author(s): |
Marko Ackermann
Total Authors: 1
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| Document type: | Master's Dissertation |
| Press: | São Paulo. |
| Institution: | Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Escola Politécnica (EP/BC) |
| Defense date: | 2002-08-22 |
| Examining board members: |
Fabio Gagliardi Cozman;
Raúl González Lima;
Luciano Luporini Menegaldo
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| Advisor: | Fabio Gagliardi Cozman |
| Field of knowledge: | Engineering - Biomedical Engineering |
| Indexed in: | Banco de Dados Bibliográficos da USP-DEDALUS |
| Location: | Universidade de São Paulo. Biblioteca Central da Escola Politécnica; EPBC/FD-3179 |
| Abstract | |
Lower limb orthosis, prescribed to paraplegic patients in order to allow them to walk and stand, have a high rejection rate. This rejection rate is mainly due to the lack of gait aesthetics and the excessive effort required from users. Such difficulties are caused to a great extent by the gait with locked knee. The objective of this work was to develop a light, compact and energy-saving system to improve gait aesthetics and to reduce the effort required from the user, through the exploitation of the natural dynamics of the lower limb. The proposed solution is a system based on a spring that stores energy during the stance phase and releases the energy during the swing phase to flex the knee. After the knee flexion, the lower limb behavior is entirely driven by its inertias until the full extension of the knee. Several simulations, performed with a simple lower limb model, demonstrated the viability of the solution proposed, by showing that the kinematic behavior of the lower limb imposed by the device is similar to that observed in the swing phase of a normal gait person. A complete prototype, which can be coupled to conventional orthoses, was designed and built. Two tests were conducted with a paraplegic patient from AACD and the results were analyzed. (AU) | |