Chen Ji, Butler J'niya, Nzonou Mawussi, Thompson Lara
Biomedical Engineering Program, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of the District of Columbia, Washington, DC, United States.
Front Rehabil Sci. 2025 Jul 16;6:1597923. doi: 10.3389/fresc.2025.1597923. eCollection 2025.
Intrepid Dynamic Exoskeletal Orthosis (IDEO), developed in Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (WRNMMC), is a custom, energy-storing orthosis made of carbon fiber. It is designed to improve mobility of individuals who have ankle dorsi and plantar flexor weakness. The development of IDEO follows a traditional workflow which is time consuming and costly. Users have reported functional limitations due to structural and material rigidity. This case report introduces a new IDEO design workflow which aims to achieve device functionality comparable to the IDEO from WRNMMC, and to reduce cost and time of production. Two IDEO prototypes were created. An experimental evaluation was conducted on a healthy participant wearing prototype 1 to assess the effects of IDEO on task completion time, joint angle and spatiotemporal measures. The participant walked along 3-meter straight line back and forth three times at self-selected speed in two conditions: walking without IDEO (baseline condition) and walking with IDEO. Our results show that the IDEO either hindered the movement or impaired the dynamic balance based on the current outcome measures, except that the range of motion of left ankle dorsi and plantar flexion angle was significantly reduced by 11 degrees ( value <0.001). Prototype 2 was created to compare time and cost of device production between UDC and WRNMMC workflows. The analysis shows that our approach reduced the cost and time. Further clinical evaluation is needed to assess the overall functionality of both prototypes when compared to the WRNMMC IDEO.
无畏动态外骨骼矫形器（IDEO）由沃尔特·里德国家军事医疗中心（WRNMMC）研发，是一种定制的、由碳纤维制成的储能矫形器。其设计目的是改善患有踝关节背屈和跖屈肌无力的个体的活动能力。IDEO的研发遵循传统工作流程，既耗时又昂贵。用户报告称，由于结构和材料的刚性，该矫形器存在功能限制。本病例报告介绍了一种新的IDEO设计工作流程，旨在实现与WRNMMC的IDEO相当的设备功能，并降低生产成本和时间。制作了两个IDEO原型。对一名佩戴原型1的健康参与者进行了实验评估，以评估IDEO对任务完成时间、关节角度和时空测量的影响。参与者在两种情况下以自选速度沿着3米直线来回行走三次：不佩戴IDEO行走（基线状态）和佩戴IDEO行走。我们的结果表明，根据目前的结果指标，IDEO要么阻碍了运动，要么损害了动态平衡，不过左踝关节背屈和跖屈角度的活动范围显著减小了11度（ 值<0.001）。制作原型2是为了比较大学设计中心（UDC）和WRNMMC工作流程在设备生产时间和成本方面的差异。分析表明，我们的方法降低了成本和时间。与WRNMMC的IDEO相比，还需要进一步的临床评估来评估这两个原型的整体功能。
