Goldfarb M, Durfee W K
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37235, USA.
IEEE Trans Rehabil Eng. 1996 Mar;4(1):13-24. doi: 10.1109/86.486053.
Functional electrical stimulation (FES) is a means of restoring gait to individuals with spinal cord injury, but the performance of most FES-aided gait systems is hampered by the rapid muscle fatigue which results from stimulated muscle contraction and the inadequate control of joint torques necessary to produce desired limb trajectories. The controlled-brake orthosis (CBO) addresses these limitations by utilizing FES in combination with a long-leg brace that contains controllable friction brakes at the knees and hips. A laboratory version of the CBO utilizing computer-controlled magnetic particle brakes at the joints was designed and constructed, and preliminary results with a single spinal cord injury (SCI) subject have demonstrated reduced fatigue and more repeatable gait trajectories when compared to FES-aided gait without the brace. Significant work remains to demonstrate the efficacy of the concept across a wide range of SCI subjects and to design a system which meets appropriate user requirements of size, weight, cosmesis, ease of use and cost. The primary purpose of the paper is to detail the design of the CBO.
功能性电刺激（FES）是一种帮助脊髓损伤患者恢复步态的方法，但大多数FES辅助步态系统的性能受到刺激肌肉收缩导致的快速肌肉疲劳以及产生所需肢体轨迹所需的关节扭矩控制不足的阻碍。可控制动矫形器（CBO）通过将FES与长腿支具相结合来解决这些限制，该支具在膝盖和臀部装有可控摩擦制动器。设计并制造了一个实验室版本的CBO，该版本在关节处使用计算机控制的磁粉制动器，与没有支具的FES辅助步态相比，一名脊髓损伤（SCI）受试者的初步结果表明疲劳减轻，步态轨迹更可重复。要证明该概念在广泛的SCI受试者中的有效性，并设计出一个满足尺寸、重量、美观、易用性和成本等适当用户要求的系统，仍有大量工作要做。本文的主要目的是详细介绍CBO的设计。
