Simulación de la actuación muscular en el diseño de ortesis activas y neuroprótesisSimulation of muscle actuation for the design of active orthoses and neuroprosthesis

Abstract

The number of persons affected by gait pathologies increases every year not only because of the new cases of spinal cord injury, cerebral palsy or stroke, but for the prevalence of these pathologies. In addition, the ageing of the population calls for immediate action to develop assistive devices in order to foster personal autonomy of people with limited mobility. From the Engineering point of view, the design of patient tailored devices according to their disability increases the device final cost. In this way, different tools are needed to assist the proper selection of the external actuators or the muscular stimulator unit to proportionate the external assistance to achieve a functional gait. In this context this thesis is aimed at presenting the study and development of different methodologies to assist the design of active orthoses and neuroprostheses for gait assistance of disabled subjects. For the design of active orthoses, a method to quantify simultaneously the combined actuation of the muscle groups and external actuators during gait is presented. For the design of neuroprostheses and hybrid orthoses an approach to calculate the stimulation profiles to obtain a given functional movement is proposed. The obtained results have led the design of a functional active orthosis prototype within the context of the National Research Project in which this thesis has been developed. The proposed methodologies will be used in the design of a hybrid orthoses prototype which allows a better rehabilitation of the lost motor function.