چکیده:
Objectives: This paper describes further improvement and preliminarily evaluation of a novel viscoelastic ankle-foot prosthesis prototype. The objective was to control the ankle hysteresis at slow and normal walking speeds.
Methods: Inspired by the ankle biomechanics, in which the hysteresis differs based on the gait speeds, a manually damping control mechanism imbedded in the prosthesis for adjusting the ankle damping at slow and normal walking speeds. The prototype was then preliminarily tested on an able-bodied subject wearing an adaptor which simulates the amputee walking. The ankle joint kinetics and kinematics were measured in a gait analysis lab at different walking speeds.
Results: The results suggest that the viscoelastic ankle foot prosthesis prototype could provide a smooth normal-like walking for most of the measured gait characteristics in slow and normal speeds.
Discussion: Therefore, it is suggested to apply a controllable damping mechanism based on the gait speeds in the design of new prosthetic feet.
خلاصه ماشینی:
Original Article Evaluation of a Viscoelastic Ankle-Foot Prosthesis at Slow and Normal Walking Speeds on an Able-Bodied Subject Zahra Safaeepour* University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences, Tehran, Iran Ali Esteki Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran Abdollah Shamloo Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Branch, Tehran, Iran Farhad Tabatabai University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences, Tehran, Iran Objectives: This paper describes further improvement and preliminarily evaluation of a novel viscoelastic ankle-foot prosthesis prototype.
Methods: Inspired by the ankle biomechanics, in which the hysteresis differs based on the gait speeds, a manually damping control mechanism imbedded in the prosthesis for adjusting the ankle damping at slow and normal walking speeds.
Results: The results suggest that the viscoelastic ankle foot prosthesis prototype could provide a smooth normal-like walking for most of the measured gait characteristics in slow and normal speeds.
An adjustable storage- damping mechanism was embedded in the design to control the ankle hysteresis at slow and normal walking speeds.
Gait analysis on healthy subject using an adaptor (Since the device was reflective, it was covered during the experiment) Results and Discussion The aim of this study was further improvement of a passive ankle-foot prosthesis that adjusts the ankle damping characteristics based on the slow and normal walking speeds.
Figures (4-5) represent the prosthetic joint angle, moment and power versus percentage of the gait cycle at six walking trials with slow and normal speeds.
The prosthetic side ankle angle versus gait cycle percent for six walking trials with slow (dashed lines) and normal (solid lines) speeds Fig 5.