Design of a Quasi-passive Ankle Prosthesis for Prescribing Stiffness Based on User Preference

This poster discusses the design of a quasi-passive ankle prosthesis that uses a small motor to vary stiffness via a linkage-based variable transmission. Stiffness can be varied while the patient is walking, during the swing phase of gait. Thus, this ankle may be employed in conjunction with a user preference optimization paradigm in order to ascertain a user's preferred stiffness in real-time. The outcome of such assessments could inform the prescription of prosthesis stiffness.