Abstract: The purpose of this study is to identify an effective method of support for the standing-up motion of children with cerebral palsy (CP). Experiments revealed remarkable differences in the shank and upper-body motions of children with CP compared with normally developed (ND) children. Shank tilt angles of CP children were smaller and their upper-body tilt angles were larger than those of ND children. The large upper-body tilt compensates for the smaller shank tilt but will cause back pain and/or deformation of the hip joint as they grow. It is therefore imperative to find a method of support to help CP children realize more natural motions (similar to those of ND children) to prevent these problems. The standing-up motion of ND children was adopted as the goal. Experiments identified a similarity in the angular variation between ND children’s upper bodies and shanks; the standing-up motion of children with CP under that condition was then simulated using a two-dimensional four-link model of the human body. As a result of the numerical simulation, shank angles of CP children increased and their upper-body angles decreased from those measured during the experiments, which indicates that the proposed method of support is qualitatively effective at allowing CP children to realize a more natural standing-up motion.

Chihiro NAKAGAWA, Ryo YONETSU, Tomohiro ITO, Shunsuke KUSADA and Atsuhiko SHINTANI, “A Preliminary Numerical Simulation Study of Developing Ankle Foot Orthosis to Support Sit-To-Stand Movement in Children with Cerebral Palsy” International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications(IJACSA), 8(3), 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.14569/IJACSA.2017.080304

@article{NAKAGAWA2017,
title = {A Preliminary Numerical Simulation Study of Developing Ankle Foot Orthosis to Support Sit-To-Stand Movement in Children with Cerebral Palsy},
journal = {International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications},
doi = {10.14569/IJACSA.2017.080304},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.14569/IJACSA.2017.080304},
year = {2017},
publisher = {The Science and Information Organization},
volume = {8},
number = {3},
author = {Chihiro NAKAGAWA and Ryo YONETSU and Tomohiro ITO and Shunsuke KUSADA and Atsuhiko SHINTANI}
}