DEVELOPMENT OF A HIP ORTHOSIS USING PNEUMATIC ARTIFICIAL MUSCLES

Different types of neurological injuries affect the patient walking ability. Rehabilitation Engineering provides equipment and devices to aid these patients to recover the movements or to improve their quality of life. The aim of the present study was to develop an equipment to assist the lower limb mo vements when a physical deficiency is installed. It was designed an exoskeleton, which consists of a hip orthosis equipp ed with pneumatic artificial muscles. The orthosis was molded for a patient who had motor deficit resultant of Poliom ielitis. The kinematics and dynamics of the hip and the lower limb was studied to determine the force produced by the artificial muscles in the initial and final positions of the patient's lower limb during the gait. A control syste m for the pneumatic muscle using the remaining myoelectrics signal of the patient's muscle was developed. Thi s signal was obtained by two electrodes and modulated to make the pneumatic muscle control. The exoskeleton reported here has proved to be able of assisting the hip flexion movement