ADDING PUSH-OFF POWER TO A ROBOTIC TRANSTIBIAL PROSTHESIS WITH NONLINEAR DAMPING BEHAVIORS

Robotic transtibial prostheses that can overcome deficiencies of passive ones are gaining increasing interests in the research field. Our previous study proposed a lightweight robotic transtibial prosthesis with a damping control strategy. To improve the performance of assistive torque, in this paper, we redesign the prosthesis and implement a new control strategy with addition of push-off power. One transtibial amputee subject was recruited to participate in the experiments. Preliminary experimental results indicate that the proposed prosthesis prototype keeps the advantage of light weight and improves the walking performance of the amputee subject by introducing extra joint torque during push-off phases.