Energy Storage Devices to Support Functional Movements’ Restoration.

Abstract: In this paper, the ways of employing energy storage devices in hybrid powered orthoses have been discussed. Since these devices have many unrivalled advantages, they are environmentally safe, they store kinetic energy as potential energy and release it when it is needed and they do not need external power supply. In this paper an energy storage device (linear extension spring) has been implemented in FES-cycling, the efficiency has been calculated for different spring positions and different spring constants. It was clear that FES-cycling efficiency increases when the spring constant increases, then the pedal, spring and the overall powers were calculated, and it appears that by leaning the spring position the overall power will be always positive, and the spring absorbs the exceeded pedal energy and releases it when the pedal power is negative. This study highlights the importance of using energy storage devices to improve FES-cycling performance, which has been proven that such improvement is highly related to the mechanical design of the bicycle. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]