6533b7d1fe1ef96bd125d5e1

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Prosthetic design and prototype development

subject

description

Abstract In recent years, there has been worldwide interest in improvement of the mobility of people with lower-limb amputations. Despite significant development of new technologies over the last decade, commercial below-knee and above-knee prostheses are still energetically passive devices. However, many locomotive functions, like walking up stairs and slopes, need significant power in the knee and ankle joints. The additional power for carrying out these previously mentioned activities needs to be achieved by means of external energy sources, which should be integral prosthetic components. This chapter presents preliminary investigations and development towards an active robotic prosthesis that could potentially enable people with an above- or below-knee amputation to perform different types of motions that require power in lower-limb joints. Our initial prototype, SmartLeg, integrates advanced prosthetic and robotic technology with state-of-the-art machine learning algorithms capable of adapting the working of the prosthesis to the optimal gait and power consumption patterns, and which therefore provides a means to customize the device to a particular user.