Development and Evaluation of a Powered Artificial Gastrocnemius for Transtibial Amputee Gait

Existing robotic transtibial prostheses provide only ankle joint actuation and do not restore biarticular function of the gastrocnemius muscle. This paper presents the first powered biarticular transtibial prosthesis, which is a combination of a commercial powered ankle-foot prosthesis and a motoriz...

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Main Authors: Michael F. Eilenberg, Jiun-Yih Kuan, Hugh Herr
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2018-01-01
Series:Journal of Robotics
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2018/5951965
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author Michael F. Eilenberg
Jiun-Yih Kuan
Hugh Herr
author_facet Michael F. Eilenberg
Jiun-Yih Kuan
Hugh Herr
author_sort Michael F. Eilenberg
collection DOAJ
description Existing robotic transtibial prostheses provide only ankle joint actuation and do not restore biarticular function of the gastrocnemius muscle. This paper presents the first powered biarticular transtibial prosthesis, which is a combination of a commercial powered ankle-foot prosthesis and a motorized robotic knee orthosis. The orthosis is controlled to emulate the human gastrocnemius based on neuromuscular models of matched nonamputees. Together with the ankle-foot prosthesis, the devices provide biarticular actuation. We evaluate differences between this biarticular condition and a monoarticular condition with the orthosis behaving as a free-joint. Six participants with transtibial amputation walk with the prosthesis on a treadmill while motion, force, and metabolic data are collected and analyzed for differences between conditions. The biarticular prosthesis reduces affected-side biological knee flexion moment impulse and hip positive work during late-stance knee flexion, compared to the monoarticular condition. The data do not support our hypothesis that metabolism decreases for all participants, but some participants demonstrate large metabolic reductions with the biarticular condition. These preliminary results suggest that a powered artificial gastrocnemius may be capable of providing large metabolic reductions compared to a monoarticular prosthesis, but further study is warranted to determine an appropriate controller for achieving more consistent metabolic benefits.
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spelling doaj-art-ec6c8c08cc2844268bf690a9d67306ae2025-08-20T03:21:26ZengWileyJournal of Robotics1687-96001687-96192018-01-01201810.1155/2018/59519655951965Development and Evaluation of a Powered Artificial Gastrocnemius for Transtibial Amputee GaitMichael F. Eilenberg0Jiun-Yih Kuan1Hugh Herr2Biomechatronics Group, MIT Media Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USABiomechatronics Group, MIT Media Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USABiomechatronics Group, MIT Media Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USAExisting robotic transtibial prostheses provide only ankle joint actuation and do not restore biarticular function of the gastrocnemius muscle. This paper presents the first powered biarticular transtibial prosthesis, which is a combination of a commercial powered ankle-foot prosthesis and a motorized robotic knee orthosis. The orthosis is controlled to emulate the human gastrocnemius based on neuromuscular models of matched nonamputees. Together with the ankle-foot prosthesis, the devices provide biarticular actuation. We evaluate differences between this biarticular condition and a monoarticular condition with the orthosis behaving as a free-joint. Six participants with transtibial amputation walk with the prosthesis on a treadmill while motion, force, and metabolic data are collected and analyzed for differences between conditions. The biarticular prosthesis reduces affected-side biological knee flexion moment impulse and hip positive work during late-stance knee flexion, compared to the monoarticular condition. The data do not support our hypothesis that metabolism decreases for all participants, but some participants demonstrate large metabolic reductions with the biarticular condition. These preliminary results suggest that a powered artificial gastrocnemius may be capable of providing large metabolic reductions compared to a monoarticular prosthesis, but further study is warranted to determine an appropriate controller for achieving more consistent metabolic benefits.http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2018/5951965
spellingShingle Michael F. Eilenberg
Jiun-Yih Kuan
Hugh Herr
Development and Evaluation of a Powered Artificial Gastrocnemius for Transtibial Amputee Gait
Journal of Robotics
title Development and Evaluation of a Powered Artificial Gastrocnemius for Transtibial Amputee Gait
title_full Development and Evaluation of a Powered Artificial Gastrocnemius for Transtibial Amputee Gait
title_fullStr Development and Evaluation of a Powered Artificial Gastrocnemius for Transtibial Amputee Gait
title_full_unstemmed Development and Evaluation of a Powered Artificial Gastrocnemius for Transtibial Amputee Gait
title_short Development and Evaluation of a Powered Artificial Gastrocnemius for Transtibial Amputee Gait
title_sort development and evaluation of a powered artificial gastrocnemius for transtibial amputee gait
url http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2018/5951965
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