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T-FLEX: Variable Stiffness Ankle-Foot Orthosis for Gait Assistance

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Wearable Robotics: Challenges and Trends (WeRob 2018)

Part of the book series: Biosystems & Biorobotics ((BIOSYSROB,volume 22))

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Abstract

The development and a preliminary evaluation of a new active ankle-foot orthosis for gait assistance called T-FLEX are presented in this paper. The purpose of this device is to support patients with locomotion disabilities during rehabilitation treatment of the ankle joint. This device is based on bio-inspired actuation, in which the stiffness can be adjusted according to a gait phase detection, thereby reproducing the behavior of antagonistic muscles. A preliminary trial with a healthy subject (kinematic analysis) reveals an increase in the range of motion in ankle kinematics, which is desirable for ankle rehabilitation and assistance.

This work was supported by Colciencias (grant 801-2017) and Colombian School of Engineering Julio Garavito.

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References

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Colombian School of Engineering Julio Garavito, Bogotá, Colombia

    Miguel Manchola, Daya Serrano, Daniel Gómez, Felipe Ballen, Diego Casas, Marcela Munera & Carlos A. Cifuentes

Authors
  1. Miguel Manchola
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  2. Daya Serrano
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  3. Daniel Gómez
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  4. Felipe Ballen
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  5. Diego Casas
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  6. Marcela Munera
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  7. Carlos A. Cifuentes
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Carlos A. Cifuentes .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, The BioRobotics Institute, Pisa, Italy

    Maria Chiara Carrozza

  2. Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Translational Neural Engineering Area, The BioRobotics Institute, Pisa, Italy

    Silvestro Micera

  3. Spanish National Research Council, Cajal Institute, Madrid, Spain

    José L. Pons

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Manchola, M. et al. (2019). T-FLEX: Variable Stiffness Ankle-Foot Orthosis for Gait Assistance. In: Carrozza, M., Micera, S., Pons, J. (eds) Wearable Robotics: Challenges and Trends. WeRob 2018. Biosystems & Biorobotics, vol 22. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01887-0_31

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01887-0_31

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-01886-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-01887-0

  • eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)

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