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J.-A. Schönherr, M. Müller, B. Glasmacher:
"Concept, design and construction of an active supporting foot prosthesis";
in: "Proceedings BMT 2014", issued by: DGBMT; De Gruyter, Berlin, 2014, ISSN: 0013-5585, S1165 - S1168.

Numerous foot prostheses are currently on the market for persons with an amputations at the lower extremity. The common
prosthesis is passive, causing many clinical problems, including non-symmetric gait patterns, poorer shock absorption,
and higher gait metabolism. This has lead to gradually more attention being paid to the incorporation of active elements
in prosthetics since the 1990´s. However, most of these devices are still on research level. Those which were made
market ready still have disadvantages such as, high weights, low battery capacity or an insufficient energetically support
of the gait. In this paper an active foot prosthetic model was developed using a wide requirement catalogue. Following
the recent literature the concept implements the idea of a series elastic actuator (SEA) and a second parallel-arranged
spring. The series spring reduces the peak output and absorbs shocks from the actuator. The prosthetic model is built on
a market available passive foot prosthesis, which obtains good elastic properties. The implemention of a parallel spring
stores energy during the stance-phase and supports the push off. The maximum range of motion (20° plantar-flection and
13° dorsal-flection) enables walking on level-ground as good as on a ramp or stairs. This concept yields a prosthetic
model that compensates the downfalls of the current model, and facilitates an improvement of the everyday life of the
user.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/bmt-2014-5014

http://publik.tuwien.ac.at/files/PubDat_236976.pdf