Abstract
Powered knee and ankle prostheses can potentially improve the mobility and function of their users, but determining the best way to control the prosthesis is difficult. Controllers that vary knee swing speed have been shown to restore gait symmetry with a powered knee and ankle prosthesis. This study's goal was to combine an existing variable speed knee swing controller with an existing impedance stance controller to determine if comfortable walking with variable cadence can be achieved and if the control method transitions would be noticeable to the user. The knee swing trajectory and duration was varied based on user walking speed as a function of the previous stance phase duration. Four individuals with unilateral transfemoral amputations were fit with a powered knee and ankle prosthesis. After 30-45 minutes of practice walking with the variable knee swing controller, subjects performed a variable speed walk test, a steady state walk test, and a 10-meter walk test. A GAITRite mat was used to collect spatial and temporal walking parameters during the 10-meter walk test. Results showed that subjects could control prosthetic knee swing duration and kinematics by modifying their walking speed. Subjects were able to comfortably transition between speeds and achieve mean (SD) comfortable and fast speeds of 1.10 (0.05) and 1.51 (0.05) m/s, respectively for a 10-meter walk test. This study's contribution is to show that a variable speed knee controller can be combined with an impedance-based controller while maintaining the functionality of both controllers and to provide gait mechanics for amputee powered gait that can be used towards future studies of controller development and prosthesis design.
Original language | English (US) |
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Title of host publication | BIOROB 2018 - 7th IEEE International Conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics |
Publisher | IEEE Computer Society |
Pages | 764-769 |
Number of pages | 6 |
ISBN (Electronic) | 9781538681831 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Oct 9 2018 |
Event | 7th IEEE RAS/EMBS International Conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics, BIOROB 2018 - Enschede, Netherlands Duration: Aug 26 2018 → Aug 29 2018 |
Publication series
Name | Proceedings of the IEEE RAS and EMBS International Conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics |
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Volume | 2018-August |
ISSN (Print) | 2155-1774 |
Other
Other | 7th IEEE RAS/EMBS International Conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics, BIOROB 2018 |
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Country/Territory | Netherlands |
City | Enschede |
Period | 8/26/18 → 8/29/18 |
Funding
This research was funded by the National Institutes of Health NICHD (R01 HD079428-02). *K. J. Kaveny is the corresponding author: e-mail: [email protected] 1Author is with the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, Chicago, IL 60611 USA 2Author is with the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL 60611 USA 3Author is with the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA 4Author is with the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Utah Robotics Center at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Artificial Intelligence
- Biomedical Engineering
- Mechanical Engineering