Unified Control of a Powered Knee-Ankle Prosthesis Enables Walking, Stairs, Transitions, and Other Daily Ambulation Activities
Conventional passive prostheses for lower limb amputees lack active assistance and cannot replicate the natural energy dynamics of healthy limbs, resulting in compromised mobility and diminished quality of life. Powered lower-limb prostheses can theoretically replicate the biomechanical function of...
Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
IEEE
2025-01-01
|
| Series: | IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/11108716/ |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1849392708837179392 |
|---|---|
| author | Liam M. Sullivan Marissa Cowan Lukas Gabert Tommaso Lenzi |
| author_facet | Liam M. Sullivan Marissa Cowan Lukas Gabert Tommaso Lenzi |
| author_sort | Liam M. Sullivan |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Conventional passive prostheses for lower limb amputees lack active assistance and cannot replicate the natural energy dynamics of healthy limbs, resulting in compromised mobility and diminished quality of life. Powered lower-limb prostheses can theoretically replicate the biomechanical function of healthy limbs during ambulation. However, existing powered prostheses fall short of fully restoring mobility for individuals with above-knee amputations. This limitation is mainly due to existing controllers, which struggle to coordinate their assistance with the user’s movements across a variety of activities in a natural manner. This paper proposes a novel unified controller for powered knee and ankle prostheses that enables multiple activities and adapts to users and the environment. The proposed controller enables natural ambulation without requiring explicit measurements of the environmental characteristics or classification of the intended ambulation task. In experiments with three amputee subjects, the proposed controller enabled walking on level, inclined, and uneven ground, ascending/descending stairs, sitting and standing, and seamless transitions between these activities. This work presents the first implementation of a unified, task-agnostic control strategy for continuous ambulation across everyday ambulation activities for powered knee and ankle prostheses. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-904329d473c54ec3a72f39efb8638679 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1534-4320 1558-0210 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | IEEE |
| record_format | Article |
| series | IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering |
| spelling | doaj-art-904329d473c54ec3a72f39efb86386792025-08-20T03:40:43ZengIEEEIEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering1534-43201558-02102025-01-01333024303910.1109/TNSRE.2025.359549611108716Unified Control of a Powered Knee-Ankle Prosthesis Enables Walking, Stairs, Transitions, and Other Daily Ambulation ActivitiesLiam M. Sullivan0https://orcid.org/0009-0006-8908-0829Marissa Cowan1https://orcid.org/0009-0009-6570-6972Lukas Gabert2https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5569-9099Tommaso Lenzi3https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0957-6412Department of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics Center, The University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USADepartment of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics Center, The University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USADepartment of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics Center, The University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USADepartment of Mechanical Engineering, Robotics Center, the Rocky Mountain Center for Occupational and Environmental Health, and the Department of Biomedical Engineering, The University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USAConventional passive prostheses for lower limb amputees lack active assistance and cannot replicate the natural energy dynamics of healthy limbs, resulting in compromised mobility and diminished quality of life. Powered lower-limb prostheses can theoretically replicate the biomechanical function of healthy limbs during ambulation. However, existing powered prostheses fall short of fully restoring mobility for individuals with above-knee amputations. This limitation is mainly due to existing controllers, which struggle to coordinate their assistance with the user’s movements across a variety of activities in a natural manner. This paper proposes a novel unified controller for powered knee and ankle prostheses that enables multiple activities and adapts to users and the environment. The proposed controller enables natural ambulation without requiring explicit measurements of the environmental characteristics or classification of the intended ambulation task. In experiments with three amputee subjects, the proposed controller enabled walking on level, inclined, and uneven ground, ascending/descending stairs, sitting and standing, and seamless transitions between these activities. This work presents the first implementation of a unified, task-agnostic control strategy for continuous ambulation across everyday ambulation activities for powered knee and ankle prostheses.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/11108716/Biomechanicscontrollower-limb prosthesispowered prostheticsprosthetics |
| spellingShingle | Liam M. Sullivan Marissa Cowan Lukas Gabert Tommaso Lenzi Unified Control of a Powered Knee-Ankle Prosthesis Enables Walking, Stairs, Transitions, and Other Daily Ambulation Activities IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering Biomechanics control lower-limb prosthesis powered prosthetics prosthetics |
| title | Unified Control of a Powered Knee-Ankle Prosthesis Enables Walking, Stairs, Transitions, and Other Daily Ambulation Activities |
| title_full | Unified Control of a Powered Knee-Ankle Prosthesis Enables Walking, Stairs, Transitions, and Other Daily Ambulation Activities |
| title_fullStr | Unified Control of a Powered Knee-Ankle Prosthesis Enables Walking, Stairs, Transitions, and Other Daily Ambulation Activities |
| title_full_unstemmed | Unified Control of a Powered Knee-Ankle Prosthesis Enables Walking, Stairs, Transitions, and Other Daily Ambulation Activities |
| title_short | Unified Control of a Powered Knee-Ankle Prosthesis Enables Walking, Stairs, Transitions, and Other Daily Ambulation Activities |
| title_sort | unified control of a powered knee ankle prosthesis enables walking stairs transitions and other daily ambulation activities |
| topic | Biomechanics control lower-limb prosthesis powered prosthetics prosthetics |
| url | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/11108716/ |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT liammsullivan unifiedcontrolofapoweredkneeankleprosthesisenableswalkingstairstransitionsandotherdailyambulationactivities AT marissacowan unifiedcontrolofapoweredkneeankleprosthesisenableswalkingstairstransitionsandotherdailyambulationactivities AT lukasgabert unifiedcontrolofapoweredkneeankleprosthesisenableswalkingstairstransitionsandotherdailyambulationactivities AT tommasolenzi unifiedcontrolofapoweredkneeankleprosthesisenableswalkingstairstransitionsandotherdailyambulationactivities |