An above-knee prosthesis with magnetorheological variable-damping

This work presents the design of a variable-damping prosthesis for above-knee amputees. The proposed low cost system is self-contained and based on a four-bar polycentric mechanism, in which a magnetorheological linear damper is integrated to enable variable-damping control. The paper also describes...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inProceedings of the ... IEEE/RAS-EMBS International Conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics pp. 108 - 113
Main Authors Ochoa-Diaz, Claudia, Rocha, Thiago S., de Levy Oliveira, Lucas, Paredes, Miguel G., Lima, Rafael, Padilha L. Bo, Antonio, Borges, Geovany A.
Format Conference Proceeding
LanguageEnglish
Published IEEE 01.08.2014
Subjects
Damping
Embedded systems
Foot
Knee
Legged locomotion
Prosthetics
Prototypes
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Summary:This work presents the design of a variable-damping prosthesis for above-knee amputees. The proposed low cost system is self-contained and based on a four-bar polycentric mechanism, in which a magnetorheological linear damper is integrated to enable variable-damping control. The paper also describes a control strategy based on a Finite State Machine, which will modulate the damping level according to the actual state of the gait cycle. Preliminary tests on an amputee subject provided a satisfactory performance of the system while operating in the passive mode, i.e., simulating situations when the battery runs out, and also enabled correct identification of gait events.
ISBN:1479931268
9781479931262
ISSN:2155-1774
DOI:10.1109/BIOROB.2014.6913761