Abstract
A general knee brace fixes a knee for achieving stability of the knee during the stance phase. However, the muscle, which should be used in normal condition, may not become to move by fixing the knee. Thus, effective rehabilitation can be prohibited. The practical active knee brace, which can generate active joint torque, has never appeared, because of the problems of costs, overweight, mechanical noise and energy consumption. This study investigates a knee brace which can generate extensional knee joint torque by utilizing ground reaction force without an external energy source, and can smoothly move corresponding to the walking phase. However, the preliminary sliding mechanism couldnot work correctly stochastically. This report experimentally examines the performance of an improved knee brace by an electrormyogram on soleus muscle and knee angle during walking.
