Mechanical design of powered prosthetic leg and walking pattern generation based on motion capture data

In this paper, we describe the design procedure of an above-knee powered prosthetic leg and an algorithm to generate appropriate gait patterns that are synchronized with the movement of the user. The developed prosthetic leg has powered knee and ankle joints for transfemoral amputees, and its weight and dimensions were determined on the basis of human body data. In particular, two degrees of freedom (roll and pitch axes) were adopted in the ankle joint to achieve dynamic balance control on uneven ground, and passive toe joints using a crank-rocker mechanism and torsional springs were attached at the foot to increase the walking stability. In addition, we developed a walking pattern simulator that is able to test the walking patterns of the powered prosthetic leg in the air. By attaching two inertial sensors on both thighs of the user and measuring both thigh motions, the per cent of gait cycle is suitably calculated from the proposed algorithm, and smooth gait motions are generated according to the gait cycle percent. Finally, walking patterns of the powered prosthetic leg were successfully generated by synchronizing to the human gait, and the generated gaits were analyzed by comparing them to the human gait.