Case Study on Human Walking during Wearing a Powered Prosthetic Device: Effectiveness of the System “Human-Robot”

Abstract

It is known that force exchanges between a robotic assistive device and the end-user have a direct impact on the quality and performance of a particular movement task. This knowledge finds a special reflective importance in prosthetic industry due to the close human-robot collaboration. Although lower-extremity prostheses are currently better able to provide assistance as their upper-extremity counterparts, specific locomotion problems still remain. In a framework of this contribution the authors introduce the multibody dynamic modelling approach of the transtibial prosthesis wearing on a human body model. The obtained results are based on multibody dynamic simulations against the real experimental data using AMP-Foot 2.0, an energy efficient powered transtibial prosthesis for actively assisted walking of amputees.

Adaptive Foot in Lower-Limb Prostheses

“…The AMP-Foot 2.0 [26,27]. This is a further development of AMP-Foot 1.0 [25] with energy regeneration adaptive foot ( Figure 12(a)).…”

“…This was an initial design with a flat foot, yet with spring, locking mechanism, and planetary/epicyclical gear system to control the movement of joint. The locking mechanism was the intuition for developing the AMP-Foot 2.0 [26,27] later with foot mechanism. This design was validated experimentally to prove the functional capability of ankle foot.…”

“…Foot amputees' lives can be uplifted and made comfortable and more productive to the society by developing advanced, reliable prosthetic solutions. Currently, some passive [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16], active [17][18][19], and hybrid [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30] adaptive foot prostheses have been developed with a focus on different functional requirements and design mechanisms.…”

“…Longitudinal adaption is the significance in this design. Some existing foot prostheses [25][26][27] and humanoid robots [20] use electronic sensor inputs to control motions.…”

A velocity estimation algorithm for legged robot

“…It seems that the problems mentioned before have been solved; however, in actual practice, external environment is complex, changeable, and of low reliability, and moreover, the sensor used for collecting external information is normally very expensive, therefore, measures should be considered in the aspect of expansion of robot production scale and robot use range, simplification of hardware processing technology, and assure the maximum economical effectiveness before making robot enter human daily life. 23 This article adopts the existing low-cost civilian inertial navigation Crossbow NAV440 in laboratory which costs less than US$10,000. Both of its forward velocity error and side velocity error are 0.4 m/s.…”