Development and Preliminary Evaluation of a Lower Body Exosuit to Support Ankle Dorsiflexion

For patients suffering from drop foot due to weakness of ankle dorsiflexion muscles, an orthosis provides increased clearance during the swing phase gait, but often restricts other gait functions, such as plantarflexion. Due steady progress in development lighter and smaller actuator technologies, active wearable devices exosuits become relevant for rehabilitation, since they can offer extended functionality including a more comfortable wear than passive plastic orthosis. The aim paper is present lightweight exosuit supporting with autonomous recognition phases conditions. One main requirement iterative non-restrictive function, thus no differences between assisted non-assisted healthy subject should occur. We therefore conducted pilot biomechanics study using statistical parametric mapping analyze kinematics joint muscle activity m. tibialis anterior nine subjects without any anomalies walking exosuit. results show significant difference support. In contrast orthosis, developed system could be enhanced solution assist foot, which analyzed next step evaluating development.