Active Orthoses

Millions of patients worldwide suffer from knee joint disorders, including quadriceps weakness, Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome, or from injuries, stroke, post-polio, multiples sclerosis, or SCI. An improvement in lower extremity assistive devices will benefit some or all of these patients. However, with few exceptions, orthotic options for this population are limited to passive technologies that cannot provide assistance necessary to replicate the function of an unaffected limb. Accordingly, there is great potential for the development of electromechanical devices to drastically increase the quality of life of this population. We are developing mechanically simple quasi-passive orthotic devices/exoskeletons that assist with walking of these potential users and possibly include a wider range of patients in bipedal walkers. This technology can potentially be used in development of exoskeletal devices meant to reduce energetic requirements of locomotion for healthy users.