POWERED ARTIFICIAL KNEE WITH AGONIST-ANTAGONIST ACTUATION

• Main Authors: MARTINEZ-VILLALPANDO ERNESTO C, HERR HUGH M, WEBER JEFF ANTHONY
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 13.02.2014
• Subjects: BANDAGES, DRESSINGS OR ABSORBENT PADS; DEVICES PROVIDING PATENCY TO, OR PREVENTING COLLAPSING OF,TUBULAR STRUCTURES OF THE BODY, E.G. STENTS; FILTERS IMPLANTABLE INTO BLOOD VESSELS; FIRST-AID KITS; FOMENTATION; HUMAN NECESSITIES; HYGIENE; LAND VEHICLES FOR TRAVELLING OTHERWISE THAN ON RAILS; MEDICAL OR VETERINARY SCIENCE; MOTOR VEHICLES; ORTHOPAEDIC, NURSING OR CONTRACEPTIVE DEVICES; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; PROSTHESES; TRAILERS; TRANSPORTING; TREATMENT OR PROTECTION OF EYES OR EARS

A knee prosthesis comprises an agonist-antagonist arrangement of two series-elastic actuators in parallel, including a knee joint, flexion and extension actuators connected to the joint in parallel with a leg member, and a controller for independently energizing the actuators to control the movement of the knee joint and leg. The flexion actuator comprises the series combination of a flexion motor and a flexion elastic element and the extension actuator comprises the series combination of an extension motor and an extension elastic element. Sensors provide feedback to the controller. The flexion actuator and the extension actuator may be unidirectional, with the flexion and extension elastic elements being series springs. The extension actuator may alternatively be bidirectional, with the extension elastic element being a set of pre-compressed series springs. Alternatively, the flexion elastic element may be a non-linear softening spring and the extension elastic element may be a non-linear hardening spring.