Iranian Journal of Biomedical Engineering (IJBME)
نشریه علمی مهندسی پزشکی زیستی

Designing a Novel Personalized Bio-Inspired Knee Joint for Misalignment Reduction between Knee Braces and Exoskeletons with Knee Joint

Document Type : Full Research Paper

Authors

Parsa Farrokhi 1
Mostafa Nazari 2
Mahdi Bamdad 2

1 M.Sc., Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Shahrood University of Technology, Shahrood, Iran

2 Associate Professor, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Shahrood University of Technology, Shahrood, Iran

https://doi.org/10.22041/ijbme.2024.2025800.1893
Abstract
The lack of alignment between the performance of a knee brace and the kinematics of the knee joint can lead to damage and pain in the knee of individuals suffering from arthritis. More compatibility between the knee joint and the brace leads to more effectiveness of these devices. Human knee movement is a combination of rolling and sliding, while most commercial braces use rotational or hinge mechanisms that cannot fully mimic the movement of the human knee. To address this limitation and reduce the incongruence in commercial braces, this paper aims to design a novel supplementary knee brace mechanism based on the biomechanical features of the knee for replacement in commercial braces. Initially, the knee joint’s kinematics is thoroughly studied, and the femur bone’s performance from full extension to full flexion is simulated. Then, using this simulation, the intersection points of the anterior and posterior femoral bone axes during the knee flexion were identified on the sagittal plane where the knee brace joint is positioned. Therefore, the two new curves of the femur bone path are much more related to the kinematics of the knee than the other obtained paths. Based on these two path curves, the supplementary knee joint was designed as a type-3 six-link Stephenson mechanism to achieve a sufficient and necessary alignment with knee joint kinematics. For optimization of the geometry of the mechanism, the PSO algorithm has been used. The designed brace kinematics demonstrates the ability to mimic human knee movement and exhibit much less incongruence compared to other commercial brace joints.

Keywords

Bio-Inspired Brace Joint
Biomechanics
Knee Kinematics
Knee Osteoarthritis
Stephenson Mechanism

Subjects

  1. R. Convery, "Basic Biomechanics of the Skeletal System. Victor H. Frankel and Margareta Nordin. Philadelphia, Lea & Febiger, 1980. 303 pages. Illustrated," ed: Wiley Online Library, 1981.
  2. Heidari, "Knee osteoarthritis prevalence, risk factors, pathogenesis and features: Part I," Caspian journal of internal medicine, vol. 2, no. 2, p. 205, 2011.
  3. Kim, T. Kim, C. Ko, S. Lee, and K. Kong, "Bio-inspired cable-driven knee orthosis for tibiofemoral joint load distribution," IFAC-PapersOnLine, vol. 55, no. 27, pp. 430-435, 2022.
  4. Ma, Mechatronic Design and Control of Assistive Knee Braces for Gait Rehabilitation. The Chinese University of Hong Kong (Hong Kong), 2015.
  5. D. Gaasbeek, B. E. Groen, B. Hampsink, R. J. Van Heerwaarden, and J. Duysens, "Valgus bracing in patients with medial compartment osteoarthritis of the knee: a gait analysis study of a new brace," Gait & posture, vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 3-10, 2007.
  6. Schmalz, E. Knopf, H. Drewitz, and S. Blumentritt, "Analysis of biomechanical effectiveness of valgus-inducing knee brace for osteoarthritis of knee," Journal of Rehabilitation Research & Development, vol. 47, no. 5, 2010.
  7. Yin, K. Chen, L. Guo, L. Cheng, F. Wang, and L. Yang, "Identifying the functional flexion-extension axis of the knee: an in-vivo kinematics study," PloS one, vol. 10, no. 6, p. e0128877, 2015.
  8. Rivière and P.-A. Vendittoli, "Personalized hip and knee joint replacement," 2020.
  9. N. Spring, J. Kofman, and E. D. Lemaire, "Design and evaluation of an orthotic knee-extension assist," IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering, vol. 20, no. 5, pp. 678-687, 2012.
  10. Bhave, "Gait and clinical improvement with a novel knee brace for knee OA," Osteoarthritis and Cartilage, vol. 21, p. S276, 2013.
  11. E. Pollo, J. C. Otis, S. I. Backus, R. F. Warren, and T. L. Wickiewicz, "Reduction of medial compartment loads with valgus bracing of the osteoarthritic knee," The American journal of sports medicine, vol. 30, no. 3, pp. 414-421, 2002.
  12. P. Self, R. M. Greenwald, and D. S. Pflaste, "A biomechanical analysis of a medial unloading brace for osteoarthritis in the knee," Arthritis Care & Research, vol. 13, no. 4, pp. 191-197, 2000.
  13. R. Budarick, B. E. MacKeil, S. Fitzgerald, and C. D. Cowper-Smith, "Design evaluation of a novel Multicompartment unloader knee brace," Journal of Biomechanical Engineering, vol. 142, no. 1, p. 014502, 2020.
  14. C. Etoundi, C. L. Semasinghe, S. Agrawal, A. Dobner, and A. Jafari, "Bio-inspired knee joint: trends in the hardware systems development," Frontiers in Robotics and AI, vol. 8, p. 613574, 2021.
  15. Shiraishi, "Functional assessment for the natural knee joints in squat activity by simulation of 2D X‐ray images based on 3D CT image," Trans Jpn Soc of Mech Eng, vol. 77, p. 219, 2011.
  16. Kikuchi, K. Sakai, and I. Abe, "Bioinspired knee joint for a power-assist suit," Journal of Robotics, vol. 2016, 2016.
  17. Niu, Z. Song, and J. Dai, "Kinematic analysis and optimization of a planar parallel compliant mechanism for self-alignment knee exoskeleton," Mechanical Sciences, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 405-416, 2018.
  18. Hall, "Sciences H. Basic biomechanics," ed: United States: McGraw Hill Higher Education, 2014.
  19. Affatato, "Biomechanics of the knee," in Surgical techniques in total knee arthroplasty and alternative procedures: Elsevier, 2015, pp. 17-35.
  20. Iwaki, V. Pinskerova, and M. Freeman, "Tibiofemoral movement 1: the shapes and relative movements of the femur and tibia in the unloaded cadaver knee," The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery British Volume, vol. 82, no. 8, pp. 1189-1195, 2000.
  21. Martelli and V. Pinskerova, "The shapes of the tibial and femoral articular surfaces in relation to tibiofemoral movement," The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery British Volume, vol. 84, no. 4, pp. 607-613, 2002.
  22. McPherson, J. Kärrholm, V. Pinskerova, A. Sosna, and S. Martelli, "Imaging knee position using MRI, RSA/CT and 3D digitisation," Journal of Biomechanics, vol. 38, no. 2, pp. 263-268, 2005.
  23. Johal, A. Williams, P. Wragg, D. Hunt, and W. Gedroyc, "Tibio-femoral movement in the living knee. A study of weight bearing and non-weight bearing knee kinematics using ‘interventional’MRI," Journal of biomechanics, vol. 38, no. 2, pp. 269-276, 2005.
  24. Tokuhara, Y. Kadoya, S. Nakagawa, A. Kobayashi, and K. Takaoka, "The flexion gap in normal knees: an MRI study," The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery British Volume, vol. 86, no. 8, pp. 1133-1136, 2004.
  25. (Mar. 15, 2024). Free CAD Designs, Files & 3D Models | The GrabCAD Community Library. Available: https://grabcad.com/library/knee-joint-model-1
  26. S. Rao, Engineering optimization: theory and practice. John Wiley & Sons, 2019.
  27. Erdman, G. Sandor, and S. Kota, "Mechanism Design: Analysis and Synthesis, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs," ed: Upper Saddle River NJ, USA, 1984.
Iranian Journal of Biomedical Engineering (IJBME)
Volume 17, Issue 4
Winter 2024
Pages 301-313

  • Receive Date 04 April 2024
  • Revise Date 23 June 2024
  • Accept Date 10 September 2024

Home

Contact Us