Mechanical bracing solutions to decrease tibial slippage of Anklebot

Anklebot is a general-purpose therapeutic robot designed to guide the human ankle through motions with appropriate assistance. Anklebot relies on accurate position feedback from its actuators, which may or may not be corrupted due to slippage of Anklebot. This study seeks to quantify the slippage that exists using the current shoulder strap support system and seeks to identify new methods of support that warrant further investigation. An exoskeleton support system and a waist support system made of bungees attached to a belt were prototyped methods to improve upon the current shoulder strap design. Variance in the separation between markers on the knee brace and leg was used as a measure of slippage. The exoskeleton did not decrease slippage primarily due to high tolerances in the inversion-eversion joint at the heel of the shoe. The waist support system decreases slippage when enough bungees were attached. Further work on the waist support system is recommended.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2010

Author dc:creator

• Tao, Gregory Daniel

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Neville J Hogan.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/60204

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/60204