The purpose of this proposal is to develop a new ankle foot orthosis (AFO) device with an energy storage/release mechanism that can be used to assist patients with walking disabilities. The development of the AFO will significantly reduce the energy cost of ambulation and have a significant positive impact upon the lives of children with CP and others who expend a lot of energy walking due to ankle pronations problems caused by neurological or orthopedic conditions. The research takes a combined experimental/computational approach and will impact multiple areas of science including human-machine interaction, optimization algorithms for biomechanics, neuromotor control of walking, virtual reality movement training, and robotics.
