A Novel 3-DOF HIP Exoskeleton for Kinematically Establishing Animal Model of Avascular Necrosis of the Femoral Head

This paper outlines a detailed description of the design on a 3-DOF hip robotic device for kinematically establishing animal model of avascular necrosis (AVN) of the femoral head. In order to realize the hip extension/flexion and abduction/adduction movements of rabbit subjects, a novel 2-DOF hip motion apparatus based on a pair of cardan joints is investigated. 2 electric grounded motors are used to drive rabbits passively in terms of predefined trajectories repeatedly with an additional periodical impact loading on the femoral head during motions. It is ideal to simulate usual forceful and repeated actions in sports, such as gymnastics and acrobatics, and initiated a new way to establish animal femoral head AVN models by means of kinematically simulating the real motion procedure rather than traditional medical or physiological operation method. With sets of experiments, the characterization of the exoskeleton system is discussed.