Development of a test device for lower limb exoprostheses (gait simulator) and first experimental results
Technically Assisted Rehabilitation, 3rd European Conference, Berlin, March 17 - 18, (2011)Abstract
Technological advances in exoprosthetics allow a steady increase in the mobility of amputees, but also result in high loading of the prosthetic components. Special characteristics of this increased loading are the large scatter band and the multiple superimposed loads in the course of the cyclic gait process. In order to identify resources and risks in material, it is necessary to assess the loads, which are repeated in cyclical patterns, as a function of time from a material-requirement perspective. With our gait simulator, it is possible for the first time to couple complex loads into full leg prosthesis and to run it over several million cycles in laboratory experiments. The studies range from simple functional tests to the analysis of the most frequently recurring load sequences. This is particularly important for the exploration of new prosthetic solutions, in which the gait simulator can simulate a five-year gait history in a test run of a six-week period only.