An investigation into a locking mechanism designed for a gear-based knee joint prosthesis

Autor: C. X. Tong, M. S. H. Bhuiyan
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2020
Předmět:
Zdroj: Cogent Engineering, Vol 7, Iss 1 (2020)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 2331-1916
23311916
DOI: 10.1080/23311916.2020.1738186
Popis: Background: The knee-locking mechanism in an above-knee prosthesis is crucially important to protect the prosthesis user from sudden falling down due to unexpected disturbance while standing upright. Method: An electromagnet-based knee-locking mechanism has been designed and developed for a gear-based knee joint prosthesis prototype. The electromagnet has been controlled by a microcontroller to lock and unlock the knee joint with the help of position data detection using a gyro sensor during the thigh movement. The functionality of the locking mechanism and the overall performance of the gear-based knee joint prosthesis have been tested through experiment. Results: The proposed locking mechanism incorporated in the modified gear-based knee joint is found working well with the program coded and loaded into the microcontroller. The prosthesis prototype is observed capable of recreating the lower-limb gait cycle closer to that of a healthy individual with the developed electromagnet based locking mechanism. Conclusions: Though measuring the stability performance was not possible due to the unavailability of proper testing facility, the knee-locking mechanism has been found ensuring the safety measure of that gear-based knee joint prosthesis to some reliable extent.
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