Comfortable Robots to improve motion
At Elasthetics, our mission is to develop comfortable robots to assist the motion of children with disabilities. Our products deploy soft motors, AKA artificial muscles, to create comfortable and natural assist.
DE-AFO is our first product.
Powered by artificial muscles, DE-AFO, is a robotic ankle foot orthosis (AFO) for children with cerebral palsy (CP) to help them walk more comfortably and longer. DE-AFO is subject-specific to fit the children with different deviation and deformities,; it is modular for cost-efficient maintenance; it is scalable to accommodate for the child growth; it is acoustically noiseless and low profile to be less conspicuous and fit in normal-size shoes.
The Pains That DE-AFO Targets
Lack of ankle control in pediatric populations, limits mobility, and consequently delay the cognitive social and physical development.
The most common neurological disorder in the pediatric population, cerebral palsy (CP), usually causes ankle control dysfunction.
The braces, AFO, used to improve this pathology are:
Bulky
Semi-rigid
Hot
Uncomfortable
Thus, they constrains the ankle's motion, and often cause:
Disuse atrophy of muscles,
Skin damage,
Adverse neural adaptation
Alternatively, powered orthoses promote the natural movement of the ankle.
The Solutions That DE-AFO Offers
In a biomimetic approach, DE-AFO uses artificial muscles to assist ankle motion.
In a unique approach tailor-made for CP, DE-AFO's controller drives these muscles in synchrony with the ankle's muscles.
Unlike conventional motors the artificial muscles are:
lightweight
compact
soft
noiseless
These features improve upon heavy and conspicuous designs of the existing AFOs,
enhance the natural feel, thereby, the acceptability of DE-AFO
The DE-AFO design is
Modular to create subject-specific solutions
Salable to accommodate for the growth of the child
Cerebral Palsy (CP)
CDC defines Cerebral palsy (CP) as a group of disorders that affect a person’s ability to move and maintain balance and posture. CP is the most common motor disability in childhood. CDC estimates that an average of 1 in 345 children in the U.S. have CP.
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