Successful preliminary walking experiments on a transtibial amputee fitted with a powered prosthesis.

Versluys, Rino; Lenaerts, Gerlinde; Van Damme, Michaël; Jonkers, Ilse; Desomer, Anja; Vanderborght, Bram; Peeraer, Louis; Van der Perre, Georges et al. · Prosthet Orthot Int · 2009

case_report · Level V

Where this comes from

Abstract

This paper presents the results of preliminary walking experiments on a transtibial amputee wearing a powered prosthesis. The prosthesis prototype serves as a proof-of-concept implementation for investigating the potential of pleated pneumatic artificial muscles to power a transtibial prosthesis. The device is equipped with pleated pneumatic artificial muscles, and tethered to a laboratory pressure source. The prosthesis is capable of providing the amputee with 100% of the required push-off torque and it can adapt its joint stiffness to the walking speed. This study supports the hypothesis that a powered transtibial prosthesis with adaptable stiffness might be beneficial to the amputee.

Medical subject headings

Anatomy