Gait motion assisting apparatus

A gait motion assisting apparatus comprising:

• a terminal device;
• and
• an actuator unit removably attachable to a knee ankle foot orthosis having a thigh-side brace and a lower leg-side brace to be respectively attached to a user's thigh and lower leg,
• wherein the lower leg-side brace is connected to the thigh-side brace so as to be rotatable around a brace-side pivot axis line,
• wherein the actuator unit has an upper frame and a lower frame respectively connectable to the thigh-side brace and the lower leg-side brace, an actuator-side rotational connecting part for connecting both frames such that the lower frame is rotatable around an actuator-side pivot axis line relative to the upper frame, a driver attached to the upper frame to produce driving force for rotating the lower frame around the actuator-side pivot axis line, a thigh orientation detecting means capable of detecting an angle-related signal relating to a hip joint angle that is a front-back swing angle of the user's thigh, and an actuator-side control device responsible for operational control for the driver,
• wherein the actuator-side control device is configured to calculate, based on the angle- related signal at a sampling timing, a thigh phase angle at the sampling timing, calculate, based on the thigh phase angle, a gait motion timing during gait cycle corresponding to the sampling timing, apply the gait motion timing of the sampling timing to output pattern saved data that is saved in the actuator-side control device and that indicates a relationship between a gait motion timing during gait cycle and a size of assisting force to be imparted to the lower frame to calculate assisting force to be imparted to the lower frame at the sampling timing, and execute operational control for the driver such that the assisting force is output,
• wherein the terminal device has a display part, an input part, a terminal-side control part, and a wireless communication part for performing wireless communication with the actuator-side control device, and is capable of receiving via the input part an assisting force setting value including an assisting force imparting period obtained by specifying a period for imparting assisting force to the lower frame by using a gait motion timing during gait cycle,
• wherein the terminal-side control part creates, based on the assisting force setting value received via the input part, output pattern setting data indicating a relationship between a gait motion timing during gait cycle and a size of assisting force to be imparted to the lower frame, and sends the output pattern setting data to the actuator-side control device via the wireless communication part according to manual send operation via the input part, and
• wherein the actuator-side control device overwrite-saves the output pattern setting data received from the terminal device as the output pattern saved data.