Development of a Knee Orthosis to Prevent Falling Due to Buckling among Elderlies

Abstract

The number of elderlies increases over the years and has triggered concerns on healthcare system, the community and the family. Elderly could experience knee buckle and fall due knee osteoarthritis (OA), a common syndrome of weakness due to aging degeneration. It may cause pain and injuries and hence fears to stay mobile. As a result, this would give a negative effect to mental and physical health. It is common that elderlies attempt to wear an assistive knee device in hope of providing security in walking. The aim of this project is to survey the faith of elderlies in knee braces, to investigate the stiffness of sampled market knee braces/orthoses again sudden knee buckling and to propose a novelty design of a mechatronic knee orthosis. From the survey, the elderlies are general having faith in wearing a knee brace / orthosis to provide walking security. Secondly, from the experimental load test, the findings revealed that these sampled knee brace or orthoses do not feature on delayed bending when knee buckling occurred. Finally, the proposed design has revealed improved knee stiffness and prolong delayed knee bending.