Reproduction of Healthy Side Kicking Motion in Intelligent Ankle Foot Orthosis

This research group has developed an intelligent ankle foot orthosis. A motor linked to the ankle joint implements a semiactive variable damper in the ankle joint of the ankle foot orthosis. The damping coefficient of the motor is varied according to the gait condition, preventing foot drop due to paralysis and enabling a smooth gait. In this study, an active assist function is added during the kicking motion on the paralyzed side for further gait improvement. Here, the kicking motion on the healthy side is recorded, and the motion is reproduced at the ankle joint on the paralyzed side one step later. In this report, first, the angle sensor attached to the ankle joint on the healthy side acquires the time change of the angle, which is transmitted to a PC by a wireless microcomputer, and recorded. Then, we developed a system that extracts only the kicking motion from the recorded angle changes of the healthy side and transmits it to the motor controller mounted on the paralyzed side. The operation of the developed data communication system was verified using a simple experimental model. As a result, data was successfully transmitted, but a large delay was observed before the motor controller received the data transmitted by the PC.