• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.165-171
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• 2016

A prosthetic knee for above-knee (AK) amputee is categorized into passive and active type. The passive prosthetic knee is generally made by elastic material. Although AK amputee can easily walk by using passive prosthetic leg, knee joint motions are not similar to ordinary persons. The active prosthetic leg can control the knee angle owing to the actuator and microprocessor. However, the active type is not cost-effective and the stability may be lost due to the malfunction of sensors. In order to resolve these disadvantages of passive and active type, a semi-active prosthetic knee which can control the knee angle is proposed in this work. The proposed semi-active one requires a less input energy but provides active type performance. In order to achieve this goal, in this work, a semi-active prosthetic knee using magneto-rheological (MR) damper for AK amputees is designed. The MR damper can support the weight of body by using less energy than actuator of active prosthetic. It can control knee angle by inducing the magnetic field at the time of stance phase. This salient characteristic is evaluated and presented in this work.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.275-296
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• 2016

This paper focuses on developing a new configuration on magnetorheological (MR) brake damper as prosthetic knee. Prosthetic knee uses magnetic fields to vary the viscosity of the MR fluid, and thereby its flexion resistance. Exerted transmissibility torque of the knee greatly depends on the magnetic field intensity in the MR fluid. In this study a rotary damper using MR fluid is addressed in which a single rotary disc will act as a brake while MR fluid is activated by magnetic field in different walking gait. The main objective of this study is to investigate a prosthetic knee with one activating rotary disc to accomplish necessary braking torque in walking gait via T-shaped drum with arc surface boundary and implementing of Newton's equation of motion to derive generated torque at the inner surface of the rotary drum. For this purpose a novel configuration of a T-shaped drum based on the effects of a material deformation process is proposed. In this new design, the T-shaped disc will increase the effective areas of influences in between drum and MR fluid together and the arc wall crushes the particles chains (fibrils) of the MR fluid together instead of breaking them via strain in a conventional MR brake. To verify the proposed MR brake, results of the proposed and conventional MR brakes are compared together and demonstrated that the resisting torque of the proposed MR brake is almost two times greater than that of the conventional brake.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.24 no.8 s.197
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• pp.130-137
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• 2007

The optimized prosthetic mass distribution was a controversial problem in the previous studies because they are not supported by empirical evidence. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the effect of prosthetic mass properties by modeling musculoskeletal system, based on the gait analysis data from two above-knee amputees. The joint torque at hip joint was calculated using inverse dynamic analysis as the mass was changed in knee and foot prosthetic components with the same joint kinematics. The results showed that the peak flexion and abduction torque at the hip joint were 5 Nm and 15 Nm when the mass of the knee component was increased, greater than the peak flexion and abduction torque of the control group at the hip joint, respectively. On the other hand, when the mass of the foot component was increased, the peak flexion and abduction torque at the hip joint were 20 Nm and 15 Nm, greater than the peak flexion and abduction torque of the control, respectively. The hip flexion torque was 4.71-fold greater and 7.92-fold greater than the hip abduction torque for the knee mass increase and the foot mass increase on the average, respectively. Therefore, we could conclude that the effect of foot mass increase was more sensitive than that of knee mass increase for the hip flexion torque. On the contrary, the mass properties of the knee and foot components were not sensitive for the hip abduction torque. In addition, optimized prosthetic mass and appropriate mass distributions were needed to promote efficiency of rehabilitation therapy with consideration of musculoskeletal systems of amputees.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.31 no.10
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• pp.913-922
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• 2014

This paper describes design of a robotic above-knee prosthetic leg which is powered by electrical motors. As a special feature, the robotic prosthetic leg has enough D.O.F.s. For mimicking the human leg, the robotic prosthetic leg is composed of five joints. Three of them are called 'active joint' which is driven by electrical motors. They are placed at the knee-pitch-axis, the ankle-pitch-axis, and the an! kle-roll-axis. Every 'active joint' has enough torque capacity to overcome ground reaction forces for walking and is backlashless for accurate motion generation and high-performance balance control. Other two joints are called 'passive joint' which is activating by torsion spring. They are placed at the toe part and designed by Crank-rocker mechanism using kinematic design approach. In order to verify working performance of the robotic prosthetic leg, we designed a gait trajectory through motion capture technique and experimentally applied it to the robot.

• Physical Therapy Korea
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.65-72
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• 1996

The purpose of this study was to introduce rotation-plasty procedure and prosthetic ambulation training. The recent development of chemotherapy and diagnostic facility have permitted the orthopaedic surgeons to try limb saving procedures rather than amputations for the treatment of the malignant bone tumors. If the tumors around the knee joint were treated by mid-thigh amputation or hip disarticulation, it would impose the client with a great handicap for rehabilitation. Rotation-plasty procedure was first done by Borggreve, in 1930 for the congenital short femur. Recently this procedure was used a malignant bone tumor at the distal femur by Kotz and Salzer in 1982. In spite of its cosmetic problem of the distal stump, this procedure has the great functional advantage of converting the above-knee amputation to the below-knee amputation. The inverted foot was also good to control the prosthesis as a below-knee stump and heel functioned as a patella to support the body weight. This 15 years old girl case was had rotation-plasty due to osteosarcoma of the distal femur with 3rd postoperative chemotherapy, and admitted to Yonsei rehabilitation hospital for prosthetic ambulation training. Then, the case had excellent functional results of prosthetic ambulation training with rotaion-plasty after 3 months.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.1505-1508
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• 2008

One of the important functions of prosthetic foot is the foot inversion-eversion which is so important when walking on uneven surfaces. The aim of our study was to evaluate the effect of foot eversion angle especially on knee and ankle joint for transtibial amputees by motion analysis. The experimental data were collected from three transtibial amputees and then ten healthy individuals. To simulate walking on side sloping ground, we used custom-made slope (5, 10, 15 degrees). Motion analysis was performed by 3-dimensional motion analyzer for 6 dynamic prosthetic feet. The results showed that knee abduction moments of amputated leg were decreased but those of sound leg were mainly increased as foot eversion angle increased. And ankle abduction moments of sound leg were inconsistent in magnitude and tendency between control and experimental group. Therefore foot eversioncharacteristics should be considered to develop advanced prosthetic foot.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.159-168
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• 2024

Lower limb amputees are increasing due to various reasons. It is difficult for lower limb amputees to walk without an assistive device such as a prosthetic leg. In this paper, an electronically controlled knee-type prosthetic leg with a 4-bar linkage structure for lower limb amputees was developed. The knee-type prosthetic leg has a 4-bar linkage structure and assists walking by using an integrated drive module. The torque is 90 Nm, the rotation speed is up to 120 deg, and it weight 1.9 kg, so it is lighter than a commercial prosthetic leg, so it can be used for a long time because there is less fatigue when walking. An integrated control board was developed by applying various sensors and microprocessor. The motor drive and encoder are built into the integrated drive module. The integrated control board and integrated drive module communicate using CAN. When a lower limb amputee wears a knee-type prosthetic leg and walks, it shows a shape similar to the swing phase graph of a normal people, and it is possible to walk naturally while walking.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.33 no.9
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• pp.886-891
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• 2009

One of the important functions of prosthetic foot is the foot inversion-eversion which is so important when walking on uneven surfaces. The aim of our study was to evaluate the effect of foot eversion angle especially on knee and ankle joint for transtibial amputees by motion analysis. The experimental data were collected from three transtibial amputees and then ten healthy individuals. To simulate walking on side sloping ground, we used custom-made slope (5, 10, 15 degrees). Motion analysis was performed by 3-dimensional motion analyzer for 6 dynamic prosthetic feet. The results showed that knee abduction moments of amputated leg were decreased but those of sound leg were mainly increased as foot eversion angle increased. And ankle abduction moments of sound leg were inconsistent in magnitude and tendency between control and experimental group. Therefore foot eversioncharacteristics should be considered to develop advanced prosthetic foot.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Emotion and Sensibility Conference
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• 2000.04a
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• pp.328-329
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• 2000

A viscosity resistance control method of the intelligent prosthetic legs is studied using an optimal control theory. The simulated results suggests that it is important to control the viscosity of the prosthetic knee joint in one period of walking to improve the usability. In this paper we describe modeling of the thigh prosthetic legs, optimal control and simulated results.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.24 no.3 s.174
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• pp.613-624
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• 2000

In this study, new design method of prosthetic foot was suggested which can evaluate the performance of prosthetic foot by implementing amputee's gait simulation using the finite element analysis. The basic shape of ESPF(Energy Storing Prosthetic Foot) was designed which is suitable for the below-knee amputee considering mechanical properties and kinematic properties. And, the performance evaluations were performed using the Taguchi method with orthogonal array L25. As a result, average main effect of factors for the ESPF's performance were calculated and then optimum condition of given shape was selected. Essential particulars for the performance evaluation from the simulation result were the quantity of external work needed in stance phase, the quantity of transferred energy from the ESPF through the knee, and the vertical displacement of knee at toe-off. Reasonable optimum condition was obtained from the using performance index. From this study, it was found that it is necessary for the design of ESPF to consider the geometrical data related to the magnitude of load on elastic material.