Centre for Applied Biomechanics, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
School of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics, Xiangtan University, Xiangtan, Hunan, China.
PLoS One. 2024 Jun 7;19(6):e0303397. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0303397. eCollection 2024.
A novel powered ankle-foot prosthesis is designed. The effect of wearing the novel prosthesis and an energy-storage-and-return (ESAR) foot on lower-limb biomechanics is investigated to preliminarily evaluate the design. With necessary auxiliary materials, a non-amputated subject (a rookie at using prostheses) is recruited to walk on level ground with an ESAR and the novel powered prostheses separately. The results of the stride characteristics, the ground reaction force (GRF) components, kinematics, and kinetics in the sagittal plane are compared. Wearing the powered prosthesis has less prolongation of the gait cycle on the unaffected side than wearing the ESAR foot. Wearing ESAR or proposed powered prostheses influences the GRF, kinematics, and kinetics on the affected and unaffected sides to some extent. Thereinto, the knee moment on the affected side is influenced most. Regarding normal walking as the reference, among the total of 15 indexes, the influences of wearing the proposed powered prosthesis on six indexes on the affected side (ankle's/knee's/hip's angles, hip's moment, and Z- and X-axis GRF components) and five indexes on the unaffected side (ankle's/knee's/hip's angles and ankle's/hip's moments) are slighter than those of wearing the ESAR foot. The influences of wearing the powered prosthesis on two indexes on the unaffected side (knee's moment and X-axis GRF component) are similar to those of wearing the ESAR foot. The greatest improvement of wearing the powered prosthesis is to provide further plantarflexion after reaching the origin of the ankle joint before toe-off, which means that the designed powered device can provide further propulsive power for the lifting of the human body's centre of gravity during walking on level ground. The results demonstrate that wearing the novel powered ankle-foot prosthesis benefits the rookie in recovering the normal gait more than wearing the ESAR foot.
设计了一种新型动力踝足假肢。为了初步评估设计，研究了穿着新型假肢和储能-回能（ESAR）脚对下肢生物力学的影响。在必要的辅助材料的帮助下，招募了一位非截肢（使用假肢的新手）受试者，让他分别穿着 ESAR 和新型动力假肢在水平地面上行走。比较了矢状面的步幅特征、地面反力（GRF）分量、运动学和动力学。与穿着 ESAR 脚相比，穿着动力假肢在未受影响的一侧步态周期的延长时间更短。穿着 ESAR 或提出的动力假肢在一定程度上影响了受影响和未受影响侧的 GRF、运动学和动力学。其中，受影响侧的膝关节力矩受影响最大。以正常行走作为参考，在总共 15 个指标中，与穿着 ESAR 脚相比，穿着提出的动力假肢对受影响侧的六个指标（踝关节/膝关节/髋关节角度、髋关节力矩和 Z 轴和 X 轴 GRF 分量）和未受影响侧的五个指标（踝关节/膝关节/髋关节角度和踝关节/髋关节力矩）的影响较小。穿着动力假肢对未受影响侧的两个指标（膝关节力矩和 X 轴 GRF 分量）的影响与穿着 ESAR 脚相似。穿着动力假肢的最大改进是在达到踝关节的初始位置后在足趾离地前提供进一步的跖屈，这意味着设计的动力装置可以在平地行走时为人体重心的提升提供进一步的推进力。结果表明，与穿着 ESAR 脚相比，穿着新型动力踝足假肢更有助于新手恢复正常步态。
