Kinetostatic Design-Refinement of Articulated Knee Braces

Knee bracing has been used to realize a variety of functional outcomes in both sport and rehabilitation application. Much of the literature focuses on the effect of knee misalignment, force reduction and superiority of custom braces over commercial over-the-counter braces. Efforts on developing exoskeletons to serve as knee augmentation systems emphasize actuation of joints, which then adds to bulkiness of ensuing designs. In lieu of this, we would like to employ a semi-active augmentation approach (by addition of springs and dampers). Such an approach serves to redirect power (motions and forces) to achieve the desired functional outcomes from the knee braces. However, the suitable selection of geometric dimensions of the brace and spring parameters to achieve desired motion- and force-profiles at the knee remains a challenge. We therefore introduce a two-stage kinetostatic design process to help customize the brace to match a desired kinematic/static performance.