Nonsurgical treatment of Dropped Head Syndrome (DHS) incurs the use of collar-type orthoses that immobilize the neck and cause discomfort and sores under the chin. Articulated orthoses have the potential to support the head posture while allowing partial mobility of the neck and reduced discomfort and sores. This work presents the design, modeling, development, and characterization of a novel multi-degree-of-freedom elastic mechanism designed for neck support. This new type of elastic mechanism allows the bending of the head in the sagittal and coronal planes, and head rotations in the transverse plane. From these articulate movements, the mechanism generates moments that restore the head and neck to the upright posture, thus compensating for the muscle weakness caused by DHS. The experimental results show adherence to the empirical characterization of the elastic mechanism under flexion to the model-based calculations. A neck support orthosis prototype based on the proposed mechanism is presented, which enables the three before-mentioned head motions of a healthy participant, according to the results of preliminary tests.

翻译：低头综合征（DHS）的非手术治疗通常采用颈托类矫形器，这类装置会固定颈部并导致下巴下方出现不适和压疮。铰接式矫形器具有支撑头部姿势的潜力，同时允许颈部部分活动，从而减少不适和压疮。本文提出一种新型多自由度弹性机构的设计、建模、开发与特性表征方法，该机构专为颈部支撑设计。这种新型弹性机构可实现头部在矢状面和冠状面的弯曲，以及在水平面的旋转。通过这些关节运动，该机构产生将头部和颈部恢复至直立姿势的力矩，从而补偿DHS引起的肌肉无力。实验结果表明，在屈曲状态下弹性机构的经验特性与基于模型的计算结果一致。基于所提机构研制的颈部支撑矫形器原型，根据初步测试结果，可使健康受试者实现上述三种头部运动。