Adaptive neuro-control for a Knee-Ankle-Foot-Orthosis with patient feedback
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1
Georg-August University Göttingen, III. Physical Institute – Biophysics, Germany
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2
Bernstein Focus Neurotechnology Göttingen, BFNT-G, Germany
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3
Otto Bock HealthCare GmbH, R&D, Germany
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4
Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience, BCCNN-G, Germany
A Knee-Ankle-Foot-Orthosis (KAFO) is a modular lower-extremity orthosis prescribed to people with gait disability which might be e.g. caused by diseases or injury to brain or spinal-cord. The KAFO should support, correct and assist the movement of the corresponding affected joints. Traditional KAFOs are restricted by a gait depending switch of the joints based on (electro-) mechanic non-adaptive switches. So common disturbances (floor unevenness, obstacles, ramps) can not be mastered in a satisfactory way. Novel approaches include active elements into the orthosis, which do not directly act on the movement, but, instead, adjust the compliance generating the very difficult problem of efficient control of such actuators.
Thus new technologies have to be developed to improve control, to overcome the shortcomings of traditional non-adaptive approaches, solving the problem of efficient actuator control. As development of advanced orthotic devices is additionally held back by the vast number of possible indications as well as by the wide range of neuromuscular variability within a specific patient group (Yakimovich et al., 2009), the development of advanced devices is imposing the need for individual (online) adaptation of gait parameters to allow adaptation (1) to changing environments like slopes, stairs etc. and (2) to the individual patients physiological conditions using neuro-control as inspired by RunBot (Manoonpong et al., 2007).
In this poster we present a novel type of KAFO based on a controllable hydraulic damper, derived from OttoBock's C-Leg©, concentrating on the adaptation to the patient by means of direct feedback to the desired neuro-control implemented in the orthosis which allows the patient to actively interact with the controller. As the underlying technique is based on muscle like damping modulation a comparison to natural joint elasticity (Peter et al., 2009) is presented.
Figure 1: Prototype of new KAFO with hydraulic damper.
Acknowledgements
We acknowledge support by BFNT Göttingen.
Keywords:
computational neuroscience
Conference:
Bernstein Conference on Computational Neuroscience, Berlin, Germany, 27 Sep - 1 Oct, 2010.
Presentation Type:
Presentation
Topic:
Bernstein Conference on Computational Neuroscience
Citation:
Braun
J,
Patel
V,
Manoonpong
P,
Wörgötter
F and
Graimann
B
(2010). Adaptive neuro-control for a Knee-Ankle-Foot-Orthosis with patient feedback.
Front. Comput. Neurosci.
Conference Abstract:
Bernstein Conference on Computational Neuroscience.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fncom.2010.51.00022
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Received:
20 Sep 2010;
Published Online:
23 Sep 2010.
*
Correspondence:
Mr. Jan-Matthias Braun, Georg-August University Göttingen, III. Physical Institute – Biophysics, Göttingen, Germany, j-mb@mmmi.sdu.dk