title: The AMP-Foot 3, new generation propulsive prosthetic feet with explosive motion characteristics: design and validation.
abstract: The last decades, rehabilitation has become a challenging context for mechatronical engineering. From the state-of-the-art it is seen that the field of prosthetics offers very promising perspectives to roboticist. Today's prosthetic feet tend to improve amputee walking experience by delivering the necessary push-off forces while walking. Therefore, several new types of (compliant) actuators are developed in order to fulfill the torque and power requirements of a sound ankle-foot complex with minimized power consumption. At the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, the Robotics and Multibody Mechanics research group puts a lot of effort in the design and development of new bionic feet. In 2013, the Ankle Mimicking Prosthetic (AMP-) Foot 2, as a proof-of-concept, showed the advantage of using the explosive elastic actuator capable of delivering the full ankle torques ([Formula: see text] Nm) and power ([Formula: see text] W) with only a 60 W motor. In this article, the authors present the AMP-Foot 3, using an improved actuation method and using two locking mechanisms for improved energy storage during walking. The article focusses on the mechanical design of the device and validation of its working principle.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, VUB, Pleinlaan 2, 1050, Brussels, Belgium. pcherell@vub.ac.be.
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Cherelle
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, VUB, Pleinlaan 2, 1050, Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: Victor
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Grosu
authors.affiliation: Center of Automation and Robotics (UPM-CSIC), Arganda del Rey, 28500, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Manuel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cestari
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, VUB, Pleinlaan 2, 1050, Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: Bram
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Vanderborght
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, VUB, Pleinlaan 2, 1050, Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: Dirk
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lefeber
mesh_terms: D000674:Amputees; D000842:Ankle; D000843:Ankle Joint / Q000502:physiology*; D001186:Artificial Limbs; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D032701:Biomimetics; D005684:Gait; D006801:Humans; D035002:Lower Extremity; D015233:Models, Statistical; D011474:Prosthesis Design / Q000379:methods*; D012371:Robotics; D019415:Torque; D016138:Walking / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: Bionic feet; Compliant actuation; Prosthetics