Development and Evaluation of a Soft Wearable Knee Rehabilitation Apparatus

EasyChair Preprint 8972

Abstract

In this paper, the design, construction and preliminary evaluation of a knee joint flexion rehabilitation device capable of restoring knee joint range of motion is detailed. To compensate for the movement of the knee joint’s center of rotation, the design consists of an array of air-filled, inflatable pouches with varying spacing between them. The device is intended to achieve knee flexion of 90 degrees and provide 10 Nm of torque. A torque evaluation test bed was constructed and utilized to measure the actuator’s exerted torque at fixed angles. Torque exerted by the device is examined to ensure it satisfies design specifications and can exert even more torque if utilized appropriately. The device was further assessed in a standing posture on three healthy individuals in order to establish the effect of lower limb form and weight on the device’s functionality, which demonstrates an adequate response time for usage on patients with knee flexion impairments. Also, a considerable transient reaction shift was seen during a response test that was done on a fixed 30-degree device to assess the impacts of regulator pressure change.

Keyphrases: Design, Fabrication, Rehabilitation, Soft, Validation, knee, lower limb

@booklet{EasyChair:8972,
  author    = {Parsa Kabir and Mohammad Zareinejad and Heidar Ali Talebi and Manijeh Soleimanifar and Mina Mavajian and Mahdi Ashoori},
  title     = {Development and Evaluation of a Soft Wearable Knee Rehabilitation Apparatus},
  howpublished = {EasyChair Preprint 8972},
  year      = {EasyChair, 2022}}