Control and implementation of a powered lower limb orthosis to aid walking in paraplegic individuals

Author

Quintero, Hugo A. ; Farris, Ryan J. ; Goldfarb, Michael

Author_Institution

Vanderbilt Univ., Nashville, TN, USA

fYear

2011

fDate

June 29 2011-July 1 2011

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

6

Abstract

This paper describes a powered lower-limb orthosis that is intended to provide gait assistance to spinal cord injured (SCI) individuals by providing assistive torques at both hip and knee joints, along with a user interface and control structure that enables control of the powered orthosis via upper-body influence. The orthosis and control structure was experimentally implemented on a paraplegic subject (T10 complete) in order to provide a preliminary characterization of its capability to provide basic walking. Data and video is presented from these initial trials, which indicates that the orthosis and controller are able to effectively provide walking within parallel bars at an average speed of 0.8 km/hr.

Keywords

gait analysis; medical control systems; neurophysiology; orthotics; torque; user interfaces; assistive torques; control structure; controller; gait assistance; hip joints; knee joints; paraplegic individuals; powered lower limb orthosis control; spinal cord injury; upper body influence; user interface; walking; Bars; Batteries; Hip; Joints; Knee; Legged locomotion; Trajectory; SCI; assistive technology; lower limb exoskeleton; paraplegia; powered orthosis; Humans; Lower Extremity; Orthotic Devices; Paraplegia; Spinal Cord Injuries; Walking;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Rehabilitation Robotics (ICORR), 2011 IEEE International Conference on

Conference_Location

Zurich

ISSN

1945-7898

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-9863-5

Electronic_ISBN

1945-7898

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ICORR.2011.5975481

Filename

5975481