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Design and Optimization of an Knee Joint of Fully-active Transfemoral Prosthesis for Stair Walking  

Ahn, Hyoung-Jong (인하대학교 기계공학과)
Lee, Kwang-Hee (인하대학교 기계공학과)
Hong, Yi (인하대학교 기계공학과)
Lee, Chul-Hee (인하대학교 기계공학과)
Publication Information
Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology / v.10, no.1, 2016 , pp. 65-72 More about this Journal
Abstract
In this study, a fully active transfemoral prothesis with a knee joint is designed considering stair walking conditions. Since the torque at the knee joint required for stair walking condition is relative high compared with the one in normal walking condition, the proposed design has high torque generating mechanism. Moreover, the transfemoral prothesis is designed in compact size to reduce its weight, which is related to comfortable fit and fatigue of patients. Flat type BLDC motor is used for simple and compact structure and various components are used to generate required torque with target working angle and speed. The weight reduction of structure is carried out using optimization method after the initial design process is complete. The optimization is conducted under the load conditions of stair walking. The optimized design is validated via finite element analysis and experiments. As a result, the weight is reduced using topology and shape optimization but maintaining the safety of structure. Also the space efficiency is improved due to its compact size.
Keywords
Transfemoral prosthesis; Topology optimization; Optimized design; Finite element analysis; Prosthetic knee joint;
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Times Cited By KSCI : 1  (Citation Analysis)
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