Reaction of Ankle Muscles by Functional Electrical Stimulation

This paper deals with an experimental study on the reaction of muscles by functional electrical stimulation(FES) with the design and fabrication of an ankle reaction apparatus. The ankle reaction apparatus consists of a circuit part and a kinematic part, and it monitors reaction time for a particular angle of joint rotation according to FES. The experimental results showed that the change of the ankle rotation angle was linearly proportional to the change of the magnitude of FES. It also showed that the muscle`s reaction time was constant no matter how large the magnitude of the stimulus. The results of this paper can be applied to develop an active-type walking-assistance robot.