Adaptive and variable stiffness ankle brace
AssigneesThe Regents of the University of California, The Government of the United States, as represented by the Secretary of the Army, The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy
InventorsKenneth Loh, Yingjun Zhao, Yujin Park, John Fraser, Shawn Farrokhi, Pinata Sessoms, Amy Silder, Adam Yoder
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Abstract
Embodiments of the presently disclosed technology provide orthopedic braces that employ adaptive/variable stiffness metamaterials to emulate the strain-stiffening behavior of ligaments. These orthopedic braces may provide lower rigidity during low-demand/low-strain activities (e.g., normal gait movements) and increased rigidity under high-demand/high-strain activities (e.g., running and other movements that require larger ranges of motion and rotational velocities).
Claims20
An adaptive-stiffness brace comprising:
- a flexible sleeve to be worn over a ligament region;
- and
- an adaptive-stiffness metamaterial coupled to the flexible sleeve, the adaptive-stiffness metamaterial comprising adjacent unit cells arranged on the flexible sleeve to emulate strain-stiffening behavior of ligaments in the ligament region;
- wherein the adjacent unit cells are geometrically arranged on the flexible sleeve to emulate location and orientation of the ligaments in the ligament region.
An adaptive-stiffness metamaterial configured to be assembled onto an orthopedic brace, the adaptive-stiffness metamaterial comprising:
- adjacent ring-shaped unit cells arranged to emulate strain-stiffening behavior of ligaments of a ligament region;
- wherein the adaptive-stiffness metamaterial exhibits increased stiffness under increased strains;
- wherein a respective ring-shaped unit cell comprises a first ring concentrically located within a second ring;
- and
- wherein the first ring and the second ring of the respective ring-shaped unit cell are disposed across a common layer of the adjacent ring-shaped unit cells.
An adaptive-stiffness brace comprising:
- a flexible sleeve to be worn over a ligament region;
- and
- an adaptive-stiffness metamaterial coupled to the flexible sleeve, wherein:
- the adaptive-stiffness metamaterial comprises adjacent ring-shaped unit cells,
- a respective ring-shaped unit cell comprises a first ring concentrically located within a second ring,
- the first ring and the second ring of the respective ring-shaped unit cell are disposed across a common layer of the adjacent ring-shaped unit cells, and
- the adaptive-stiffness metamaterial exhibits increased stiffness under increased strains.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.