Development and Preliminary Evaluation of a Lower Body Exosuit to Support Ankle Dorsiflexion
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Exosuit Functionality and Design
2.1. Functionality
2.2. Exosuit Design
2.2.1. Supporting and Force-Transmitting Structure
- (1)
- Artificial tendon—Two Bowden cables are used to transmit the actuation force from the actor—which is located on the hip belt—to the foot and therefore mimic the tendons of the dorsiflexion and the plantarflexor muscles, respectively. The steel cables are stored in a pressure-stable Bowden tube to transmit the force over any curved path. The length of the Bowden cable can be adjusted to fit different leg length;
- (2)
- Insole—The force-transmission into the foot is realized by a seatbelt webbing loop, which is sewn under an insole in the area of the 1st and 5th caput ossis metatarsalis, where a good transmission of force is given, due to the small soft tissue thickness [40] and a large possible lever arm to the ankle joint. Due to the high stiffness of seatbelt webbing for tensile forces, it is suitable to transmit forces without much elongation. As the webbing loop distributes the force over the entire foot width, it is possible to use only one artificial tendon for dorsiflexion. Regarding different footwear, the use of an insole allows an easy adaptability by providing multiple sizes of insoles, which can be placed in the wearer’s shoe and attached to the Bowden cable using a screw lock. To consider users with different gender and anthropometry, we provided three sizes of insoles (small, middle, large);
- (3)
- Webbing—To transmit the force into the lower leg and to maintain a lever arm of about 5 cm to the ankle joint, a structure of two webbing loops (5 cm width) with diagonal connections was designed. The first loop above the ankle joint acts as tension band wiring and therefore mimics the extensor retinaculum. The Bowden tube is attached to an anchor point on the frontal side of this webbing loop using a 3D-printed adapter which is sewn onto the textile. A second Bowden tube for plantarflexion is attached to the back side. This webbing loop is linked to an upper loop above the calf to transmit the counterforce from the attached Bowden tube to the muscle body of the calf. The requirement is a firmly holding interface to the body. The localization of the human-system interface above the thicker muscle body in combination with anti-slip pads made of cellular rubber on the inner side of the webbing allows a slip-resistant possibility to transmit the force into the body. Moreover, the pads distribute the force to a larger area of the skin and provide a buffer for better wearing comfort.
2.2.2. Actuation
2.2.3. Sensory
2.2.4. Control
3. Preliminary Evaluation
3.1. Participants
3.2. Experimental Design
3.3. Data Collection and Analysis
3.4. Statistical Analysis
4. Results
4.1. Kinematic Data
4.2. EMG Data
4.3. User Feedback
5. Discussion
5.1. Exosuit Design
5.2. Influence on Gait Kinematics and Muscle Activity
6. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Schubert, T.; Wollesen, B.; Weidner, R. Development and Preliminary Evaluation of a Lower Body Exosuit to Support Ankle Dorsiflexion. Appl. Sci. 2021, 11, 5007. https://doi.org/10.3390/app11115007
Schubert T, Wollesen B, Weidner R. Development and Preliminary Evaluation of a Lower Body Exosuit to Support Ankle Dorsiflexion. Applied Sciences. 2021; 11(11):5007. https://doi.org/10.3390/app11115007
Chicago/Turabian StyleSchubert, Tim, Bettina Wollesen, and Robert Weidner. 2021. "Development and Preliminary Evaluation of a Lower Body Exosuit to Support Ankle Dorsiflexion" Applied Sciences 11, no. 11: 5007. https://doi.org/10.3390/app11115007