Variable Stiffness Ankle Exoskeleton for Neurological Rehabilitation

DANIEL GOMEZ-VARGAS; FELIPE BALLEN-MORENO; FLAVIO ROBERTI; RICARDO CARELLI; MARCELA MÚNERA; CARLOS CIFUENTES

San Carlos de Bariloche

Jornada; XI Jornadas Argentinas de Robótica; 2022

Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica

Robotic devices such as ankle exoskeleton support therapy processes and assist patients´ movements. Nevertheless, some devices present limitations related to the restriction of certain motions on the ankle-foot complex and wearability. Thus, this work presents the development of a novel wearable and portable ankle exoskeleton intended for assistance and rehabilitation scenarios called T-FLEX. The exoskeleton´s design incorporates concepts of variable stiffness actuators and bioinspired actuation to assist the dorsi-plantarflexion movements, although without completely restricting the motions on the other planes. Additionally, this paper presents a preliminary validation with a healthy subject in a gait assistance scenario. The results exhibited increases in the ankle´s ROM and tibialis anterior activity when the device assisted the subject´s gait. Future works should be focused on developing high-level control strategies to improve user interaction in the modes proposed and further validations with patients.