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Active orthosis design for elbow self-rehabilitation

Abstract:

For 2017, Ecuador registered 11,678 people with some type of trauma in their elbows and forearms. Although there are elbow rehabilitation devices available in the national market distributed by commercial houses, all are import products with high purchases and maintenance costs. This investigation presents a conceptual design of a dynamic elbow rehabilitator (motor input given by the user), with restrictions associated to the use of simple geometry, available material in the zone and of low cost, that contributes with the progressive rehabilitation without medical supervision. For this, it proposed a process of design where it presents alternative mechanisms and forms to select the most adequate according to the plant requirements. Later, using CAD-CAE programs that does valid numerical simulations to define an elbow rehabilitator with a degree of freedom, able to support maximum loads given by the patient without permanently deforming. The obtained results, shows that it can be materialized by a design that can do a cinematic analysis and material resistance using CAD-CAE programs that serves to define totally the geometry and materials of the device in base of a mechanism, in which it allows movements of flex-extension of 0° a 90° that corresponds to the elbow rehabilitation phase.