Preliminary evaluation of a walking controller for a powered ankle prosthesis

Author

Shultz, Amanda H. ; Mitchell, Jason E. ; Truex, Don ; Lawson, Brian E. ; Goldfarb, Michael

Author_Institution

Dept. of Mech. Eng., Vanderbilt Univ., Nashville, TN, USA

fYear

2013

fDate

6-10 May 2013

Firstpage

4838

Lastpage

4843

Abstract

This paper describes a level walking controller for a powered ankle prosthesis. The controller was implemented on a powered prosthesis prototype and evaluated on a healthy subject by means of able-bodied adapters on a treadmill walking at 1.2 m/s (4.3 km/h). The ankle joint kinematics provided by the powered prosthesis were compared to that provided by a passive (dynamic elastic response) prosthesis, and both compared to the typical kinematics of healthy gait. The comparison indicates the powered prosthesis better reproduces the kinematics of healthy gait, relative to the passive prosthesis. The torque, energy transfer, and power provided by the powered prosthesis were additionally compared to that of a typical healthy subject.

Keywords

artificial limbs; gait analysis; torque; able-bodied adapters; ankle joint kinematics; energy transfer; healthy gait kinematics; level walking controller; passive prosthesis; powered ankle prosthesis prototype; preliminary evaluation; torque; treadmill; Biomechanics; Joints; Kinematics; Legged locomotion; Prosthetics; Springs; Torque;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2013 IEEE International Conference on

Conference_Location

Karlsruhe

ISSN

1050-4729

Print_ISBN

978-1-4673-5641-1

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ICRA.2013.6631267

Filename

6631267