Design method and verification of a hybrid prosthetic mechanism with energy-damper clutchable device for transfemoral amputees

Abstract

Transfemoral amputees (TAs) have difficulty in mobility during walking, such as restricted movement of lower extremity and body instability, yet few transfemoral prostheses have explored human-like multiple motion characteristics by simple structures to fit the kinesiology, biomechanics, and stability of human lower extremity. In this work, the configurations of transfemoral prosthetic mechanism are synthesized in terms of human lower-extremity kinesiology. A hybrid transfemoral prosthetic (HTP) mechanism with multigait functions is proposed to recover the gait functions of TAs. The kinematic and mechanical performances of the designed parallel mechanism are analyzed to verify their feasibility in transfemoral prosthetic mechanism. Inspired by motion—energy coupling relationship of the knee, a wearable energy-damper clutched device that can provide energy in knee stance flexion to facilitate the leg off from the ground and can impede the leg’s swing velocity for the next stance phase is proposed. Its co-operation with the springs in the prismatic pairs enables the prosthetic mechanism to have the energy recycling ability under the gait rhythm of the knee joint. Results demonstrate that the designed HTP mechanism can replace the motion functions of the knee and ankle to realize its multimode gait and effectively decrease the peak power of actuators from 94.74 to 137.05 W while maintaining a good mechanical adaptive stability.

Design, Simulation and Kinematic Verification of a Multi-Loop Ankle-Foot Prosthetic Mechanism

“…8. The green dashed line presents the relationship between the ankle moment and ankle angular position measured from the able-bodied subjects [26] in walking gait cycle, which is the desired reference of biomechanical performance for the development of ankle prosthetic mechanism. The red solid line denotes the ankle moment and ankle angular position of AFP mechanism obtained by simulation on human-machine walking interaction platform of AnyBody Modeling System, besides, its theoretical calculation has also been provided according to the derivation of ankle stiffness in Section III which is represented by blue dotted line.…”

A Review of Parallel Robots: Rehabilitation, Assistance, and Humanoid Applications for Neck, Shoulder, Wrist, Hip, and Ankle Joints

“…Parallel robots in assistive devices help individuals carry out activities of daily life, thereby providing greater autonomy and independence. Examples include prostheses designed to offer functional mobility by replacing missing limbs in amputees [18], as well as shoulder disarticulation arm prostheses [19,20], wrist prostheses [21], and disarticulated hip prostheses [22].…”

“…Composite materials Carbon-fiber composites: Valued for their extraordinary strength-to-weight ratios and rigidity, these composites are ideal for crafting structural components that must be both resilient and lightweight. This material was utilized in a hybrid prosthetic mechanism for transfemoral amputees [18]. • Advanced or 'smart' materials Magnetorheological fluids: These fluids are integrated into adaptive control systems to modulate mechanical properties in real time.…”