TY - GEN
T1 - Contributions of knee swing initiation and ankle plantar flexion to the walking mechanics of amputees using a powered prosthesis
AU - Ingraham, Kimberly A.
AU - Fey, Nicholas P.
AU - Simon, Ann M.
AU - Hargrove, Levi J.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2014 IEEE.
PY - 2014/11/2
Y1 - 2014/11/2
N2 - Recently developed powered prostheses are capable of producing near-physiological joint torque at the knee and/or ankle joints. Based on previous studies of biological joint impedance and the mechanics of able-bodied gait, an impedance-based controller has been developed for a powered knee and ankle prosthesis that integrates knee swing initiation and powered plantar flexion in late stance with increasing ankle stiffness throughout stance. In this study, five prosthesis configuration conditions were tested to investigate the individual contributions of each sub-strategy to the overall walking mechanics of four unilateral transfemoral amputees as they completed a clinical 10-m walk test using a powered knee and ankle prosthesis. The baseline condition featured constant ankle stiffness and no swing initiation or powered plantar flexion. The four remaining conditions featured knee swing initiation alone (SI) or in combination with powered plantar flexion (SI+PF), increasing ankle stiffness (SI+IK), or both (SI+PF+IK). Self-selected walking speed did not significantly change between conditions, although subjects tended to walk the slowest in the baseline condition compared to conditions with swing initiation. The addition of powered plantar flexion resulted in significantly higher ankle power generation in late stance irrespective of ankle stiffness. The inclusion of swing initiation resulted in a significantly more flexed knee at toe off and a significantly higher average extensor knee torque following toe off. Identifying individual contributions of intrinsic control strategies to prosthesis biomechanics could help inform the refinement of impedance-based prosthesis controllers and simplify future designs of prostheses and lower-limb assistive devices alike.
AB - Recently developed powered prostheses are capable of producing near-physiological joint torque at the knee and/or ankle joints. Based on previous studies of biological joint impedance and the mechanics of able-bodied gait, an impedance-based controller has been developed for a powered knee and ankle prosthesis that integrates knee swing initiation and powered plantar flexion in late stance with increasing ankle stiffness throughout stance. In this study, five prosthesis configuration conditions were tested to investigate the individual contributions of each sub-strategy to the overall walking mechanics of four unilateral transfemoral amputees as they completed a clinical 10-m walk test using a powered knee and ankle prosthesis. The baseline condition featured constant ankle stiffness and no swing initiation or powered plantar flexion. The four remaining conditions featured knee swing initiation alone (SI) or in combination with powered plantar flexion (SI+PF), increasing ankle stiffness (SI+IK), or both (SI+PF+IK). Self-selected walking speed did not significantly change between conditions, although subjects tended to walk the slowest in the baseline condition compared to conditions with swing initiation. The addition of powered plantar flexion resulted in significantly higher ankle power generation in late stance irrespective of ankle stiffness. The inclusion of swing initiation resulted in a significantly more flexed knee at toe off and a significantly higher average extensor knee torque following toe off. Identifying individual contributions of intrinsic control strategies to prosthesis biomechanics could help inform the refinement of impedance-based prosthesis controllers and simplify future designs of prostheses and lower-limb assistive devices alike.
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U2 - 10.1109/EMBC.2014.6944131
DO - 10.1109/EMBC.2014.6944131
M3 - Conference contribution
C2 - 25570499
AN - SCOPUS:84929497856
T3 - 2014 36th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, EMBC 2014
SP - 2504
EP - 2507
BT - 2014 36th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, EMBC 2014
PB - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
T2 - 2014 36th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, EMBC 2014
Y2 - 26 August 2014 through 30 August 2014
ER -