Abstract
Ankle.foot orthoses (AFOs) are orthotic devices for the disabled people, for example, those suffering from hemiplegia or peroneal nerve palsy, to support the movements of the ankles. We have developed intelligently controllable AFOs (i-AFO) in which the ankle torque is controlled with a compact magnetorheological fluid brake (CMRFB). In this paper, we propose a novel prototype of the i-AFO, in which the sensor system, the build-in CMRFB, the gait estimating method and torque control method were improved from those of the previous prototype. Gait-control tests with the novel i-AFO were performed for a patient with flaccid paralysis of his ankles. According to the experimental results, the estimation of the gait state and the velocity control in the initial stance phase were concurrently carried out.
