Design and Characterization of a Variable Stiffness Running Prosthesis for Bilateral Transtibial Amputee Sprinters

Design and Characterization of a Variable Stiffness Running Prosthesis for Bilateral Transtibial Amputee Sprinters

Murillo Iraola, Ainhoa (TU Delft Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering; TU Delft Biomechanical Engineering)

van der Helm, Frans (mentor)
Bergsma, Otto (mentor)
Bregman, Daan (mentor)

Delft University of Technology

2018-10-05

The purpose of this thesis project is to design a new concept of sprinting prosthesis to enhance the acceleration phase performance of bilateral transtibial amputees (BTAs) competing in sprinting races. Amputee sprinters are hampered in the acceleration phase of a sprint race by the compliance of their prostheses. Increased contact times, and small and too vertical ground reaction forces limit the acceleration performance of BTAs. A variable stiffness prosthesis, with a higher stiffness at the initial steps of the acceleration phase, would reduce contact times and increase forward propulsion. A new variable stiffness design is proposed in this report. A prototype of this new design is created and characterized by retrieving the stiffness matrices and ellipses. Ottobock's 1E90 prosthesis is also characterized, and the results are compared. For this, a new testing methodology to obtain the stiffness ellipses of running prostheses (RPs) is proposed.

Running prosthesis
Variable stiffness
Design
Characterization
Stiffness Matrix

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:90de92f4-65d4-40c6-8f36-c85d06c125ff

Student theses

master thesis

© 2018 Ainhoa Murillo Iraola