Design and Control of an Electrically Powered Knee Prosthesis

This paper describes the design and control of a transfemoral prosthesis with an electrically powered knee joint. This paper details the design of the active-knee prototype and presents an impedance-based control approach with which to coordinate the interaction between the prosthesis and user during level walking. The control methodology is implemented on the prosthesis, and experimental results and video frame sequences are shown that demonstrate the effectiveness of the prosthesis and control approach for level walking.