Preliminary evaluation of a walking controller for a powered ankle prosthesis

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.