Prosthesis with powered ankle and toe joints
AssigneeUniversity of Utah Research Foundation
InventorsTommaso LENZI, Lukas R. GABERT, Minh TRAN
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Disclosed herein is a robotic ankle foot prosthesis that replicates the key biomechanical functions of the biological ankle and toe joints while matching the weight, size, and battery life of passive microprocessor-controlled prostheses. A single actuator powers the ankle and toe joints. The mechanism maximizes the mechanical energy regeneration during walking while imitating the physiological features of energy injection by way of the ankle joint and energy dissipation by way of the toe joint.
Claims20
A powered assistive ankle and foot device, comprising:
- a shank assembly comprising an ankle joint and a shank pivot shaft offset from the ankle joint;
- a tarsal assembly comprising a proximal section and a distal section, the proximal section being connected to the shank pivot shaft;
- a toe assembly comprising a toe joint and a toe pivot shaft offset from the toe joint, the toe pivot shaft being connected to the distal section of the tarsal assembly;
- and
- a linear actuator associated with the tarsal assembly, the linear actuator being configured as a linear series elastic actuator,
- wherein the linear actuator is configured to adjust the distance between the shank pivot shaft and the toe pivot shaft to thereby provide simultaneous torque to both the ankle joint and the toe joint.
A powered assistive ankle and foot device, comprising:
- a shank assembly comprising an ankle joint;
- a tarsal assembly comprising a proximal section and a distal section, the proximal section being connected to the shank assembly;
- a toe assembly connected to the distal section of the tarsal assembly, the toe assembly comprising a toe joint;
- and
- a linear actuator included in or associated with the tarsal assembly and configured to power movement of both the ankle joint and the toe joint, wherein the linear actuator comprises a screw, a nut, and a compliant element,
- wherein the compliant element is connected to the nut and functions to move the nut toward a neutral position along the screw when the screw is not rotated.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.