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Design and Fabrication of a Passive Pelvic Orthosis for Treadmill Walking Rehabilitation

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Abstract

The pelvis plays a significant role in creating smooth and efficient motion during gait. In this study, an orthosis is designed to support pelvis motion of patients with the inability to walk. This assistive device is un-powered and consists of only passive elements. By focusing on the motion of the lower extremities during treadmill walking, a 3D dynamic model of the human body is simulated through a coupled optimization process. Based on two approaches of direct and inverse dynamics, the optimization problems are defined to derive optimum structural parameters of the pelvic orthosis. The optimization results of the direct dynamics problem indicate good matches between the optimized time plots of pelvis rotations with corresponding desired ones. Moreover, by solving the inverse dynamics problem, the minimum value of torque vector of the hip joint of the stance leg during a gait cycle is obtained. Furthermore, by utilizing a prototype of the orthosis, preliminary experiments are conducted on a normal user to validate the model and to investigate the feasibility of using the device for rehabilitation. For this purpose, the rotational movements of the pelvis and energy consumption of the subject in two cases with and without the device are compared during gait on a treadmill. Decreased energy consumption and the compliant motion of the pelvis while using the device verify simulation results and confirm the favorable performance of the assistive device for pelvic support during walking rehabilitation.

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Data Availability

The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are available upon reasonable request from the corresponding author.

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Acknowledgements

The authors highly appreciate the Department of Rehabilitation Sciences of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences which greatly assisted the research. We also would like to thank Hamed Mojiri for assisting us to fabricate a prototype.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Khomeinishahr Branch, Islamic Azad University, Khomeinishahr, 8418148499, Iran

    Ali Mokhtarian

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan, 8415683111, Iran

    Abbas Fattah & Mehdi Keshmiri

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  1. Ali Mokhtarian
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  2. Abbas Fattah
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Correspondence to Ali Mokhtarian.

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Mokhtarian, A., Fattah, A. & Keshmiri, M. Design and Fabrication of a Passive Pelvic Orthosis for Treadmill Walking Rehabilitation. J Bionic Eng 20, 1036–1048 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42235-022-00315-9

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