Prosthetic Control

Our goal is to mimic the behavior of a biological knee in a prothetic device, in an effort to enable intuitive control of the prosthesis by the user. In particular, we aim to replicate the stiffness, which is varied continuously in physiological gait.

To be able to replicate the physiolocial behavior, it needs to be quantified first. We have developed a model-based approach to estimate knee stiffness from common gait lab data. We have validated this approach in perturbation experiments in isometric conditions.

We are currently working on implementing this physiological behavior in a controller for our experimental prototype.

Publications

S. Pfeifer, A. Pagel, R. Riener and H. Vallery.
external pageActuator With Angle-Dependent Elasticity for Biomimetic Transfemoral Prostheses
IEEE/ASME transactions on mechatronics, Vol 20 (3), pp.1384-1394, 2015

S. Pfeifer, H. Vallery, M. Hardegger, R. Riener and E.J. Perreault.
external pageModel-Based Estimation of Knee Stiffness
IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, Vol 59 (9), pp. 2604-2612, 2012

H. Vallery, R. Burgkart, C. Hartmann, J. Mitternacht, R. Riener, M. Buss
Complementary limb motion estimation for the control of active knee prostheses
Biomedizinische Technik/Biomedical Engineering 2011 56:1 , 45-51

S. Pfeifer, M. Hardegger, H. Vallery, R. List, M. Foresti, R. Riener and E.J. Perreault.
Model-Based Estimation of Active Knee Stiffness
Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics (ICORR), 2011

S. Pfeifer, O. Caldiran, H. Vallery, R. Riener, A. Hernandez Arieta
Displaying Centre of Pressure Location by Electrotactile Stimulation Using Phantom Sensation
10th Vienna International Workshop on Functional Electrical Stimulation and 15th IFESS Annual Conference, Vienna, Austria, 08 September 2010 - 12 September 2010, 71-73

Funding

The Swiss National Science Foundation through the external pageNational Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) Robotics

The external pageGottfried and Julia Bangerter-Rhyner Stiftung

The ETH research grant ETHIIRA (ETH Independent Investigators' Research Awards)