Development of an automatic ankle stretching device for lower limb monoplegia patients.

This paper describes a rehabilitation device developed to replace a conventional wooden wedge type ankle stretching device (ASD) and this new device consists of sensors and microcontroller-controlled electro-mechanical actuators. A conventional ASD has been used for lower limb rehabilitation treatment system for training of monoplegia (hemiplegia) patients for a long time. The new automatic ASD machine can control angle between foot and calf (AFC), holding time and the number of repetition, and has four training modes. The new ASD machine consists of an embedded controller unit (ECU), a display unit and an actuator unit. The ECU consists of two clinometers, a 12-bit serial ADC, microcontroller, RS-232 serial interface with the display unit and actuator unit consists with electro-mechanical actuators. It can reduce the workload of physical therapists and improve the effect of rehabilitation exercise for lower limb monoplegia patients.