Investigating the Impact of the User Interface for a Powered Hip Orthosis on Metabolic Cost and User Comfort: A Preliminary Study

Conclusions The user interface may impact metabolic cost of walking and user comfort. Moving forward, it should be considered an essential element of powered orthosis design. It is critical to optimize the user interface in future powered hip orthotic designs due to minimal surface area available for weight-bearing and reduced number of actuated joints. Therefore, those interested in optimizing powered hip orthotic user interface designs should focus on loading anatomic structures, including the shoulders and iliac crests, and on supporting the curvature of the lumbar spine.
Source: JPO Journal of Prosthetics and Orthotics - Category: Orthopaedics Tags: ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLES Source Type: research