Designed as a mobility aid, the Agilik™ smart orthosis moves with the wearer, providing dynamic knee assistance and resistance when needed during a patient’s gait. This helps patients with various conditions and pathologies stand more upright, walk more easily, gain muscle strength, walk longer, and boost independence. The lightweight Agilik actuator (550g/1.2lbs) is attached to a custom KAFO (knee-ankle-foot orthosis) by your orthotist, creating a personalized, comfortable, lightweight system. The Agilik is not an exoskeleton intended to hold a patient up and walk for them, but instead a mobility device designed to improve the user’s gait.
The Agilik™ smart orthosis helps patients retain or increase their independence and mobility. This is especially critical in children with cerebral palsy, spina bifida and other knee-extension-deficiency disorders whose strength and endurance often deteriorate as they get older. The Agilik™ functions by assisting or resisting knee extension and flexion throughout the gait cycle. Approximately 50% of adolescents with CP who can walk, will be unable to do so in early or middle adulthood.* Our hope is to stop, or even reverse, this deterioration specifically by reducing crouch gait, increasing extension and strengthening their legs, enabling them to Stand Taller, Walk Stronger.™
*Bottos, M. and Gericke, C., Ambulatory capacity in cerebral palsy: prognostic criteria and consequences for intervention. Dev Med Child Neurol, 2003. 45(11): p. 786-90.
Through the use of advanced sensors and joint motors the Agilik smart orthosis can measure knee angles, knee angular velocity, initial contact and toe off and adjust the amount of assistance during specific phases of gait, aiding the user in standing and improving knee extension. During other phases of gait, the orthosis can resist the user’s muscles to help improve strength. The Agilik Care desktop/laptop app allows therapists and researchers to control the Agilik’s torque and timing.
The device provides some user gait metrics (including range of motion, maximum flexion and extension angle and speed) that enable therapists to make informed decisions for the therapy of their patient. Our goal is to enable users to Stand Taller, Walk Stronger.™
The Agilik smart orthosis is intended solely for orthotics of the lower limbs and is intended for use by ambulatory patients. The Agilik is intended for forward walking on level surfaces when the power is turned on, not for sports or aggressive use. The Agilik is indicated for patients who exhibit knee instability in the sagittal plane while bearing weight during the stance phase of their gait cycle. This includes but is not limited to patients with crouch gait from spina bifida or CP.
The Agilik is a smart orthosis which assists the flexion and/or the extension of the knee, corresponding to patient movement. The Agilik cannot initiate the movement of the joint.
Bionic Power’s solution is designed for use at home, in the community and in clinic, enabling more frequent and extensive, longer-term training and reinforcement of new gait patterns for the brain (neuroplasticity). Our ongoing trials, patient after patient, are showing a concrete benefit in gait biomechanics as well as a “training effect” (session after session the quality of the patient’s natural gait tends to improve), leading to the interesting hypothesis that the benefits of longer-term use might be based on a sort of rewiring of the user’s brain, enabling them to achieve benefits from the gait training that last after the orthosis is removed. The exact duration, efficacy, ideal length and intensity of training are variable and based on multiple factors and should be discussed with the treating physician. You can read published papers from the trials on our Published Papers page.
The Agilik smart orthosis is available now! If you believe the Agilik may help you or a patient under your care, contact us for more information about purchasing an Agilik or participating in current and future trials. Sign up to stay in the loop.
Contact us for information about the availability of research units.
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© 2024 Bionic Power Inc.
