Bio-inspired design and validation of the Efficient Lockable Spring Ankle (ELSA) prosthesis

Heremans, François;Vijayakumar, Sethu;Bouri, Mohamed;Dehez, Bruno;Ronsse, Renaud
(2019) 2019 IEEE 16th International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics (ICORR) — Location: Toronto, ON, Canada (24.June.2019)

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Authors
  • Heremans, FrançoisUCLouvain
    Author
  • Vijayakumar, Sethu
    Author
  • Bouri, Mohamed
    Author
  • Dehez, BrunoUCLouvain
    Author
  • Ronsse, Renaudorcid-logoUCLouvain
    Author
Abstract
Over the last decade, active lower-limb prostheses demonstrated their ability to restore a physiological gait for transfemoral amputees by supplying the required positive energy balance during daily life locomotion activities. However, the added-value of such devices is significantly impacted by their limited energetic autonomy, excessive weight and cost, thus preventing their full appropriation by the users. There is thus a strong incentive to produce active yet affordable, lightweight and energy efficient devices. To address these issues, we developed the ELSA (Efficient Lockable Spring Ankle) prosthesis embedding both a lockable parallel spring and a series elastic actuator, tailored to the walking dynamics of a sound ankle. The first contribution of this paper concerns the developement of a bio-inspired, lightweight and stiffness-adjustable parallel spring, comprising an energy efficient ratchet and pawl mechanism with servo actuation. The second contribution is the addition of a complementary rope-driven series elastic actuator to generate the active push-off. The system produces a sound ankle torque pattern during flat ground walking. Up to 50% of the peak torque is generated passively at a negligible energetic cost (0.1 J/stride). By design, the total system is lightweight (1.2kg) and low cost.
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Heremans, F., Vijayakumar, S., Bouri, M., Dehez, B., & Ronsse, R. (2019). Bio-inspired design and validation of the Efficient Lockable Spring Ankle (ELSA) prosthesis. 2019 IEEE 16th International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics (ICORR). Published. 2019 IEEE 16th International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics (ICORR), Toronto, ON, Canada. https://doi.org/10.1109/icorr.2019.8779421