First clinical investigation on a pneumatic lumbar unloading orthosis

Raparelli, Terenziano; Zobel, Pierluigi Beomonte; Durante, Francesco; Antonelli, Michele Gabrio; Raimondi, Piero; Costanzo, Giuseppe

doi:10.1109/iccme.2007.4381959

Cited by 11 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 1 publication

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“…In Figure 11, the result of the characterization tests carried out on the multichamber SPA is shown. Similar technology has been used for developing an articulated finger for a gripper device [16] and for an active brace for the unloading of the lumbar spine [17]. The brace is made with two rigid elements, one lower and one upper, respectively, in contact with the iliac crests and with the thoracic sockets.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Additive Manufacturing Applications on Flexible Actuators for Active Orthoses and Medical Devices

Antonelli

Zobel

Durante

et al. 2019

Journal of Healthcare Engineering

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This paper describes the results of research projects developed at the University of L’Aquila by the research group of the authors in the field of biomedical engineering, which have seen an important use of additive manufacturing technologies in the prototyping step and, in some cases, also for the realization of preindustrialization prototypes. For these projects, commercial 3D printers and technologies such as fused deposition modelling (FDM) were used; the most commonly used polymers in these technologies are acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) and polylactic acid (PLA). The research projects concern the development of innovative actuators, such as pneumatic muscles and soft pneumatic actuators (SPAs), the development of active orthoses, such as a lower limb orthosis and, finally, the development of a variable-stiffness grasper to be used in natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery (NOTES). The main aspects of these research projects are described in the paper, highlighting the technologies used such as the finite element analysis and additive manufacturing.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Additive Manufacturing Applications on Flexible Actuators for Active Orthoses and Medical Devices

Antonelli

Zobel

Durante

et al. 2019

Journal of Healthcare Engineering

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“…"Undisclosed Algorithm" is the term applied when an article doesn't mention what kind of algorithm the device uses for interpreting the manmachine interface (Raparelli et al, 2007).…”

Section: Input Processing Algorithmsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Technological and Statistical State-of-the-Art Study Regarding Active Motion-Oriented Assistive Devices

2012

Proceedings of the International Conference on Biomedical Electronics and Devices

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Active orthoses and powered exoskeletons, among other denominations, are devices made to attach to one or several human limbs in order to assist or replace its wearer's movement through means of electronicallycontrolled actuators and/or mechanical brakes. The technology developed for these devices can be used for rehabilitation, general strength enhancement for industrial or military purposes, among other situations. In order to create a comprehensive state-of-the-art work for this class of devices, several online scientific databases were used to gather articles related to this subject. Afterwards, a custom database was created to contain, organize and cross the information gathered from each relevant article. This work presents statistical results regarding the actuation technologies, the man-machine interface sensors and the corresponding interpretation algorithms. There is also a brief study about the localization of the scientific research, according to the targeted body part of the active device. The results show that the DC Motor is, by a wide margin, the most used actuator technology. This margin is reduced when wearable devices with weight constraints are developed. The electromyographic sensors are the most widely used sensors, but when these are grouped into physical variable classes, the force-related sensors show a higher number of occurrences. Regarding the processing algorithms required for the man-machine interface, it is often required to develop a custom algorithm for these devices.

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“…On the contrary, pneumatic muscle actuators (PAMs), belonging to the class of the non-traditional pneumatic actuators, are adopted in slow operations where smoothness of behavior and compliance are required. These operations are typical in biomedical [1][2][3] and medical [4,5] applications, in bio-inspired devices [6] and in robotic applications [7][8][9] where the human user is directly involved and where the presence of rigid moving components could be dangerous for the human operator. Thus, in addition to the aforementioned applications, PAMs are well suited for human-machine interaction because of their intrinsic safety.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Procedure for the Fatigue Life Prediction of Straight Fibers Pneumatic Muscles

et al. 2021

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Different from the McKibben pneumatic muscle actuator, the straight fibers one is made of an elastomeric tube closed at the two ends by two heads that ensure a mechanical and pneumatic seal. High stiffness threads are placed longitudinally into the wall of the tube while external rings are placed at some sections of it to limit the radial expansion of the tube. The inner pressure in the tube causes shortening of the actuator. The working mode of the muscle actuator requires a series of critical repeated contractions and extensions that cause it to rupture. The fatigue life duration of a pneumatic muscle is often lower than traditional pneumatic actuators. The paper presents a procedure for the fatigue life prediction of a straight-fibers muscle based on experimental tests directly carried out with the muscles instead of with specimens of the silicone rubber material which the muscle is made of. The proposed procedure was experimentally validated. Although the procedure is based on fatigue life duration data for silicone rubber, it can be extended to all straight-fibers muscles once the fatigue life duration data of any material considered for the muscles is known.

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First clinical investigation on a pneumatic lumbar unloading orthosis

Cited by 11 publications

References 1 publication

Additive Manufacturing Applications on Flexible Actuators for Active Orthoses and Medical Devices

Additive Manufacturing Applications on Flexible Actuators for Active Orthoses and Medical Devices

A Technological and Statistical State-of-the-Art Study Regarding Active Motion-Oriented Assistive Devices

A Procedure for the Fatigue Life Prediction of Straight Fibers Pneumatic Muscles

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