A powered ankle-foot orthoses for ankle rehabilitation

Ankle rehabilitation training becomes a tough question for the patients with ankle joint injuries especially with the hemiplegia after stroke. Here a novel powered ankle-foot orthoses which can provide ankle dorsiflexion and plantar flexion assistant using electric motor is proposed in this paper. The mechanical structure of the orthoses including wearing parts, ankle joint hinged part, driving unit, transmission mechanism and sensing units is mainly described. In order to obtain the ankle´s moment-angle relationship, the dynamics model of the ankle-foot is established. In addition, for the motor control of ankle-foot orthoses, motion path is planned based on the human walking gait and the simulation. This study provides a new method for ankle-foot orthoses design and has great significance for ankle rehabilitation.