A Wearable robotic for Degenerative Knee Arthritis

Abstract

Osteoarthritis, from which tens of thousands of people around the world are commonly suffering, is one of the typical chronic diseases. Osteoarthritis is an age-related disease that is proportional to age and incidence. Osteoarthritis is caused by complex combination of biochemical and biomechanics factors. Knee joints are divided into Medial Condyle(=Inner Side) and Lateral Condyle(=Outer Side). While standing, about 44% of body weight is dispersed equally in the Medial Condyle = 22% and the Lateral Condyle = 22% on one knee joint. While walking, the Loading weight on the Medial Condyle of the knee joint load three times as much as the Loading weight on the Lateral Condyle to hold the center of gravity. This makes the load unequally divided throughout the knee joint, resulting in imbalanced load concentration. This imbalance causes Adduction Torque. The rate of knee adduction torque make increasing patients suffer by knee osteoarthritis and accelerating knee joint erosion. Correction and distribution of the imbalanced concentrating load applied to the knee joint is available by pressing the Lateral Condyle of the knee joint with the physical instrument. The wearable type medical device, knee joint brace, fixes the Medial Condyle of the knee joint with directly contacting medical device and pressing the knee joint. These passive wearable knee brace cause shading of human skin, uncomfortable walking and posture imbalance that occur in Swing Phases of Gait Cycle. In this study, Based the angle of the knee joint on the gait pattern and the required reaction force and point of time on the knee joint were studied based on the angle of the knee joint and the clinical data in the advanced research. We have studied wearable robot that actively consider the fixation and relaxation of the Lateral Condyle that distributes the concentrated load affecting the knee joint at the time of the heel strike of the Stance Phases and Swing Phases of Gait Cycle.