Low Fan-Zhe, Lim Jeong Hoon, Yeow Chen-Hua
a Department of Biomedical Engineering , National University of Singapore , Singapore.
b Department of Medicine , National University Hospital , Singapore.
J Med Eng Technol. 2018 Jan;42(1):26-34. doi: 10.1080/03091902.2017.1411985. Epub 2017 Dec 19.
Motor impairment is one of the common neurological conditions suffered by stroke patients, where this chronic immobility together with the absence of early limb mobilisation can lead to conditions such as joint contracture with spastic limbs. In this study, a soft robotic sock device was developed, which can provide compliant actuation to the ankle joint in the early stage of stroke recovery. The device is fitted with soft extension actuators and when the actuators are inflated, they extend and guide the foot into plantarflexion; upon deflation, the actuators will resume their initial conformations. Each actuator is linked to a pneumatic pump-valve control system that injects pressurised air into or release air from the system. In this study, the design and characterisation of the soft actuators will be presented, where the theoretical and experimental forces generated by the actuators were compared. The performance of the device was also evaluated on healthy subjects and the results had shown that the device was able to move the subjects' ankles into cycles of dorsiflexion-plantarflexion, in the absence of voluntary muscle effort. The findings suggested that the soft wearable robotic device was capable of assisting the subjects in performing repeated cycles of ankle flexion.
运动功能障碍是中风患者常见的神经病症之一，这种长期的行动不便以及早期肢体活动的缺乏会导致诸如痉挛性肢体关节挛缩等病症。在本研究中，开发了一种柔软的机器人袜子装置，它可以在中风恢复的早期阶段为踝关节提供柔顺驱动。该装置配备了柔软的伸展致动器，当致动器充气时，它们会伸展并引导足部进入跖屈状态；放气时，致动器将恢复其初始形状。每个致动器都连接到一个气动泵阀控制系统，该系统向系统中注入压缩空气或从系统中释放空气。在本研究中，将介绍柔软致动器的设计和特性，比较致动器产生的理论力和实验力。还对健康受试者评估了该装置的性能，结果表明该装置能够在受试者没有自主肌肉用力的情况下，使受试者的踝关节进行背屈 - 跖屈循环运动。研究结果表明，这种柔软的可穿戴机器人装置能够协助受试者进行重复的踝关节屈伸循环运动。
