Abstract
This paper describes the development of a socks-shaped fluid powered actuator, which creates flexure motion of ankles in order to prevent thrombosis and drop-foot. In general, pneumatic actuators have a characteristic that the more displacement is produced in their expansion phase, the less force are outputted, which is the opposite of the characteristic of human articulation. In order to solve this problem, it is suggested the device called Λ-drive for creating flexure motion of ankles using an actuator capable of generating constant force. This actuator consists of flat tube and slider. The creating flexion motions of an ankle using this actuator were measured through EMG, showing the effectiveness of the actuator regarding support of ankle motion.
