Pneumatic active gait orthosis

The paper describes design, construction and experimental testing of an active gait orthosis intended to assist locomotion in paraplegic subjects. Design specifications were formulated on the basis of an analysis of the context in which the device will be used. Different joint activation solutions were then proposed and examined. Considerable care was devoted to defining the logic and control system and to implementing the electropneumatic circuit, given that the system must be worn by a disabled subject who has no sensory perception in the lower limbs. Experimental tests, which made it possible to determine system performance at each step of development, were carried out with no user, then with a healthy user and finally with a paraplegic user. Experimental results consisting of graphs acid photographic images are presented and discussed. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.