Mechanical Design of an Active Knee Orthosis for Gait Rehabilitation

Abstract

This paper reports on the mechanical design of an active knee orthosis, powered by pleated pneumatic artificial muscles. The orthosis is intended as a proof-of-concept rehabilitation device for the assessment of mechatronical design principles and testing of different control strategies. The general focus of this research is on the development of a step rehabilitation robot prototype consisting of a powered exoskeleton for the lower limbs.