Powered Orthosis Ortholeg: Design and Development

Abstract

This paper presents the design and development of a lower limb powered orthosis called Ortholeg. This device was designed to provide lower limb movements (such as walk) to spinal cord injured people unable to move their legs. Ortholeg weights 20kg and can be worn by users within a heights range between 1,55m to 1,70m, and weights up to 65 kg. This robotic device has two actuators for each leg, one at the knee and the other at the hip. Each one of the actuators controls one degree of freedom on the sagittal plane. The device is able to perform movements such as straight walk, sit and stand up. To ensure balance and safety, the user uses a pair of crutches. Ortholeg orthosis has an embedded modular system, motor controllers, sensors and two Human Machine Interfaces (HMI) based on buttons and electroculography.