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The Prosthetic Knee Group
From
left to right [Triet Nguyen, Albert Lee, Yip Hon Yuen, Benjamin Yiu Ku, Linlin Hu]
A powered prosthetic knee was developed to improve
on current prosthetic technology to allow powered assistance for climbing
stairs. The power assist knee provides power only for stair climbing and
not during normal walking, creating less need for battery power and
therefore longer times between recharging. This second iteration prototype
was designed and built to assess the viability of the mechanical design and
control system. The design incorporates a ball screw transmission, which
provides the necessary torque at the knee joint, while allowing for backdrive-ability. Sufficient backdrive-ability
is necessary to allow the device to function without battery power during
normal walking conditions.
Motivation and Goals
The primary design goal of the powered prosthetic
knee is to provide safe, efficient, powered assistance for stair climbing
without compromising the performance during normal walking conditions. The
motivation is to allow this added benefit of powered assistance without
compromising user comfort.
Improvements
We
have focused on solving the problems involved in the previous designs, and
the improvements we have made are as follow:
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Increased backdrive-ability
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Reduced back lash
•
Reduced noise
•
Better load cell position
•
More compact and
lightweight
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