Abstract
The key technology of the prosthetic knee is to simulate the torque and angle of the biological knee. In this work, we proposed a novel prosthetic knee operated in semi-active mode. The structure with ball-screw driven by the motor and the passive hydraulic damping cylinder was presented. A four-bar linkage was adapted to track the instantaneous center motion of human knee. The mathematical models of hydraulic cylinder damping and active torque were established to simulate the knee torque and angle. The results show that the knee torque symmetry index is smaller than 10% in the whole gait. The knee angle symmetry index value is 34.7% in stance phase and 11.5% in swing phase. The angle in swing phase is closer to the intact knee. The semi-active prosthetic knee could provide similar torque and angle of the biological knee in the simulation. It has shown good potential in improving the gait symmetry of the transfemoral amputee.
Highlights
Thousands of people lose their lower limbs due to circulatory and vascular problems, diabetes complications, cancer, or trauma every year
The work mode was similar to the normal knee joint
The knee torque symmetry of swing phase was higher than the stance phase
Summary
Thousands of people lose their lower limbs due to circulatory and vascular problems, diabetes complications, cancer, or trauma every year. Some people lost part or all of their lower limbs and the ability to walk need to be restored by lower limb prosthesis [1]. Transfemoral amputees often face more difficulty in the walking ability reconstruction since both the knee and ankle joints are lost. The prosthetic knee is the most important joint components of the lower limb prosthesis for transfemoral amputee [2]. The gait parameters are important for the safe design of prosthetics and orthotics [3,4]. The transfemoral amputees often more relied on intact side due to the distrust of prosthetic limb. The limited and abnormal gait, decreased safety, and higher energy expenditure were observed of transfemoral amputees. The performance of the prosthetic knee decides the life quality of the transfemoral amputee
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