Robotic orthoses for gait augmentation

人体矫形器的设计通常限于刚性和被动机构。 考虑到在能量传递和关节功能协调中重要的双关节肌肉-肌腱复合体的存在，可以通过模拟和增强这些特征的机械顺应性、阻尼、电动机和发电机来实现对这些矫形器的改进。 机器人替代物可用于提供对正常和病理运动的洞察，并且可用作这些下一代矫形器的鲁棒性和确定性设计和测试平台。动力假肢或矫形器的进步，如BLEEX外骨骼，依赖于耗电技术，需要使用电池或其他电源。 此外，再生膝矫形器已经经历了人体试验，并且显示出能够适度地将人体动能转换为电能。然而，在这两种情况下，电能传输都没有在关节间水平上实现。

Human orthosis design is generally restricted to stiff and passive mechanisms. Given the presence of biarticular muscle-tendon complexes which are important in energy transfer and joint function coordination, improvements to these orthoses may be achieved through mechanical compliance, damping, motors and generators which mimic and augment these characteristics. Robot surrogates can be used to provide insights into normal and pathological locomotion and can be used as robust and deterministic design and test platforms for these next generation orthoses. Advances in powered prostheses or orthoses, such as the BLEEX exoskeleton, have relied on power-hungry technologies, requiring the use of batteries or other power sources. Additionally, generative knee orthoses have undergone human trials and been shown to be capable of moderate conversion of human subject kinetic energy to electrical energy. However, in neither of these cases has electrical energy transfer been implemented at an inter-joint level.