Arm Free Paraplegic Standing Using A New HKAFO Orthosis

The aim of this study is to investigate arm free standing of paraplegic individuals using a new designed Hip- Knee-Ankle-Foot Orthosis (HKAFO). To this end, a serial seven-link chain, representing the subject and orthosis has been considered in sagittal plane, and the equations of motion were derived. A careful study has been done in the literature to find the appropriate anthropometry data for the model, including mass distributions and moments of inertia of links, and also to find passive joint moments. Afterwards, the equilibrium points of the system were found and contributing joint torques in standing function were examined to find stable equilibrium points. To achieve stable standing such stable configurations must satisfy COG stability constraint, which states that the center of gravity (COG) of the system must lie within the support polygon. The results of our experiments verify the model and the feasibility of arm free standing for the paraplegia

Keywords:

standing , paraplegia , C-posture , orthosis