Artificial Foot that Can Recycle Energy

Did you know that for an amputee to use an artificial foot to walk is kind of like what we would experience if we were carrying an additional 30 pounds? That’s according to one of the creators of an artificial foot that can recycle energy to enable the act of walking easier for amputees!

Human walking…

Is an energy wasting process since each foot comes into contact with the ground in between steps. Walking with a prosthetic foot makes it even worse as studies have shown that amputees using these artificial limbs spend 23% more energy on the act of walking.

Two researchers from the departments of Biomedical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering at University of Michigan, USA have developed an artificial foot that can cut that extra energy spent by almost a half!

How does the new artificial foot achieve this?

By the simple fact that it can recycle the energy that dissipates into the environment in between steps as our feet collide with the ground. As a result, with this new artificial foot the extra energy needed for amputees to walk has been brought down to 14%.

The foot, having captured this energy can then provide it back at exactly the right time to facilitate ankle push-off, the lack of which made the use of traditional prosthetic feet more energy consuming.

How?

By the use of a microcontroller that uses less than 1 Watt of electricity that is generated through a small portable battery.

Why is this significant?

For two reasons.

1. Other prosthetic feet can also provide energy to facilitate ankle push-off. However they cannot decide when to do it. This new foot can determine exactly the right time to give this boost of energy.
2. A microcontroller is used for this purpose which recycles energy that would otherwise be lost. As a result it only employs a small portable battery. Other prosthetic feet however rely on motors and large batteries to generate that energy needed for ankle push-off.

About this video:

Energy Recycling with the Artificial Foot: High-speed video of the energy-recycling artificial foot, played back at 6% of actual speed. Camera rate was 500 frames per second. The foot proceeds through the phases described in cf. Figure 2, beginning prior to heel strike and ending at reset. The foot is worn by an able-bodied individual using a below-knee prosthesis simulator boot. This demonstration was performed overground and with less-curved versions of the crepe roll-over shapes of the artificial foot than used in testing. Developed by Steve Collins and Art Kuo at the University of Michigan. Video by Eno Yliniemi and Randall Ching of the University of Washington Applied Biomechanics Lab.

Further research is expected in this area and the developers are optimistic that with further progress these prosthetic limbs may prove to be even more efficient than their biological counterparts!

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via: University of Michigan and escience centric