Abstract
Among the elderly person, most of their injuries are reported to be caused by falling down with stumbling. It is due to their shuffling walking style since deterioration of their dorsiflexion muscle force along with aging. Walking plays an important role in their independent day life, which require walking support equipment in the practical use. In this study, we aim at developing a wearable walking support shoes for a purpose of fall prevention of elderly people and to support walking rehabilitation training. A commercial product of Ankle Foot Orthosis is introduced and newly developed wire type pneumatic actuator is equipped on to support dorsiflexion motion during swing period at walking motion actively. In generally, these kind of active supporting systems require power source. We propose a driving scheme with no use of electric power, but with only potential energy of the wearer. Improvement of the devices towar embedding into a shoes is mainly reported here.
