TY - GEN
T1 - Design of a passive, shear-based rotary hydraulic damper for single-axis prosthetic knees
AU - Murthy Arelekatti, V. N.
AU - Petelina, Nina T.
AU - Winter, Amos G.V.
AU - Brett Johnson, W.
AU - Major, Matthew J.
N1 - Funding Information:
We would like to acknowledge Dr. Pooja Mukul and the rest of the staff at Bhagwan Mahaveer Viklang Sahayata Samiti (BMVSS, a.k.a., the Jaipur-Foot Organization, Jaipur, India) for their partnership in our work. Funding for this study was provided by the the Tata Center for Technology and Design at MIT, the National Science Foundation Graduate CAREER Grant (no. 1653758), and the Indo-US NIH collaborative program grant on affordable medical devices (no. 9208498).
Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2018 ASME.
PY - 2018
Y1 - 2018
N2 - With over 30 million people worldwide in need of assistive devices, there is a great need for low-cost, high performance prosthetic technologies in the developing world. A majority of the hydraulic dampers used in prosthetic knee designs are highly specialized, expensive, require regular maintenance, and are incompatible for use with low-cost, single-axis prosthetic knees popular in developing countries. In this study, optimal damping coefficients were computed based on a theoretical analysis of gait, specifically during the transition from the stance to swing phase of human walking when a large damping torque is needed at the knee. A novel rotary hydraulic damper prototype was designed using high-viscosity silicone oil and a concentric meshing of fins for shearing the oil. The prototype was validated experimentally to provide the desired damping torque profile. For preliminary, user-centric validation of the prototype, a gait study on one above-knee amputee in India was conducted with four different damping magnitudes. Feedback from the subject validated the optimal damping torque magnitude predicted for minimizing gait deviations and for enabling able-bodied knee kinematics. The new rotary hydraulic damper design is novel, passive, and compatible with low-cost, single-axis knee prostheses.
AB - With over 30 million people worldwide in need of assistive devices, there is a great need for low-cost, high performance prosthetic technologies in the developing world. A majority of the hydraulic dampers used in prosthetic knee designs are highly specialized, expensive, require regular maintenance, and are incompatible for use with low-cost, single-axis prosthetic knees popular in developing countries. In this study, optimal damping coefficients were computed based on a theoretical analysis of gait, specifically during the transition from the stance to swing phase of human walking when a large damping torque is needed at the knee. A novel rotary hydraulic damper prototype was designed using high-viscosity silicone oil and a concentric meshing of fins for shearing the oil. The prototype was validated experimentally to provide the desired damping torque profile. For preliminary, user-centric validation of the prototype, a gait study on one above-knee amputee in India was conducted with four different damping magnitudes. Feedback from the subject validated the optimal damping torque magnitude predicted for minimizing gait deviations and for enabling able-bodied knee kinematics. The new rotary hydraulic damper design is novel, passive, and compatible with low-cost, single-axis knee prostheses.
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U2 - 10.1115/DETC201885962
DO - 10.1115/DETC201885962
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85057023482
T3 - Proceedings of the ASME Design Engineering Technical Conference
BT - 42nd Mechanisms and Robotics Conference
PB - American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)
T2 - ASME 2018 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference, IDETC/CIE 2018
Y2 - 26 August 2018 through 29 August 2018
ER -