Phase-Specific Stiffness of Sprinting Prostheses: Performance Enhancement of Amputee Sprinting: A Modelling Approach

Running-specific prostheses enable amputee athletes to perform at the highest level. However, current prosthesis design still impairs sprinting performance in multiple ways. An example is the constant mechanical stiffness of the prosthetic devices. The dynamic behaviour of the blade is determined by this property, but it is static and cannot...

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

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...

Optimal Team Time Trial Strategy in Road Cycling: Optimisation of Changing Strategy using a Mathematical Performance model

During team time trials in road cycling changing schemes are used to spread the workload over the cyclists in the team. Models that provide predictions of race performance already exist for individual time trials. It is proposed that with a performance model for team time trials, the performance of different strategies can be compared and...