Analysis of Walking Skill in Stair Ascent based on Inertia Matching and Its Application to Control of Transfemoral Prosthesis

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25289065
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Partial Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Intelligent mechanics/Mechanical systems
• Research Institution: Ritsumeikan University
• Principal Investigator: Wada Takahiro 立命館大学, 情報理工学部, 教授 (30322564)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): INOUE Koh 香川大学, 工学部, 助教 (90624205) ; SEKIMOTO Masahiro 富山大学, 大学院理工学研究部(工学), 講師 (40454516) ; HOBARA Hiroaki 国立研究開発法人産業技術総合研究所, 人間情報研究部門, 研究員 (40510673)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 大腿義足 / 慣性特性 / 運動制御 / バイオメカニクス / 動作解析

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The purpose of this project was to develop an evaluation method of walking skill in level walking and stair ascending with a transfemoral prosthesis, and to develop passive prostheses that allow amputees to climb up stairs smoothly. Firstly, evaluation indices to quantify closeness between a given whole body motion and its inertial motion, which means no external torque or force. Skills related to the level walking and stair ascending with the prosthesis were characterized based on the effective use of inertial motion. Then, knee motion generation method of the prosthesis was proposed for its control that leveraging the inertial motion. Furthermore, three types of passive transfemoral prostheses that allow the amputee climb up stairs were developed based on the above results. Experimental results demonstrated that our proposed prostheses smoothly achieved from level walking and ascending stairs.

Free Research Field

知能機械システム