A quasi-passive compliant stance control Knee-Ankle-Foot Orthosis

In this paper, we present the design of a novel quasi-passive stance-control orthosis that implements a natural amount of knee compliance during the weight acceptance phase and potentially the entire stance phase of the gait, and allows for free motion during the rest of the gait. We explain that the unaffected knee behaves close to a linear torsional spring in stance and hypothesize that an assistive device that places a linear spring of appropriate stiffness in parallel with the knee can help restore the natural behavior of the joint in stance. We present the design of a friction-based latching mechanism and a control algorithm that engages the spring in parallel with the knee in stance and disengages it during the swing phase of gait, and explain how this module is implemented into a brace in order to create a novel class of compliant stance control orthosis. The device is quasi-passive in that a small actuator serves to lock and unlock the spring module, but the device otherwise requires no actuation and very little power, computation, and control to operate.