Advances on mechanical designs for assistive ankle-foot orthoses

Julio S Lora-Millan; Mahdi Nabipour; Edwin van Asseldonk; Cristina Bayón

doi:10.3389/fbioe.2023.1188685

Advances on mechanical designs for assistive ankle-foot orthoses

Front Bioeng Biotechnol. 2023 Jul 7:11:1188685. doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2023.1188685. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Julio S Lora-Millan¹, Mahdi Nabipour², Edwin van Asseldonk², Cristina Bayón²

Affiliations

¹ Electronic Technology Department, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid, Spain.
² Department of Biomechanical Engineering, University of Twente, Enschede, Netherlands.

Abstract

Assistive ankle-foot orthoses (AAFOs) are powerful solutions to assist or rehabilitate gait on humans. Existing AAFO technologies include passive, quasi-passive, and active principles to provide assistance to the users, and their mechanical configuration and control depend on the eventual support they aim for within the gait pattern. In this research we analyze the state-of-the-art of AAFO and classify the different approaches into clusters, describing their basis and working principles. Additionally, we reviewed the purpose and experimental validation of the devices, providing the reader with a better view of the technology readiness level. Finally, the reviewed designs, limitations, and future steps in the field are summarized and discussed.

Keywords: active; ankle-foot; gait; orthosis; passive.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

This work has been carried out with the financial support from the Dutch Research Council NWO, under the grant Veni-TTW-2020 with ref. number 18079, and partly with the financial support from the KNAW Ter Meulen grant of the Academy Medical Sciences Fund, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, ref. number KNAWWF/1327/TMB202101.