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Design and control of a prosthetic leg for above-knee amputees operated in semi-active and

active modes

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2016 Smart Mater. Struct. 25 085009

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 Smart Materials and Structures

Smart Mater. Struct. 25 (2016) 085009 (13pp) doi:10.1088/0964-1726/25/8/085009

Design and control of a prosthetic leg for

above-knee amputees operated in semi-
active and active modes
Jinhyuk Park, Gun-Ha Yoon, Je-Won Kang and Seung-Bok Choi
Smart Structures and Systems Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Inha University,
Incheon 402-751, Korea

E-mail: seungbok@inha.ac.kr

Received 4 January 2016, revised 9 May 2016

Accepted for publication 22 June 2016
Published 11 July 2016

Abstract
This paper proposes a new prosthesis operated in two different modes; the semi-active and active
modes. The semi-active mode is achieved from a ow mode magneto-rheological (MR) damper,
while the active mode is obtained from an electronically commutated (EC) motor. The knee joint
part of the above knee prosthesis is equipped with the MR damper and EC motor. The MR
damper generates reaction force by controlling the eld-dependent yield stress of the MR uid,
while the EC motor actively controls the knee joint angle during gait cycle. In this work, the MR
damper is designed as a two-end type ow mode mechanism without air chamber for compact
size. On other hand, in order to predict desired knee joint angle to be controlled by EC motor, a
polynomial prediction function using a statistical method is used. A nonlinear proportional-
derivative controller integrated with the computed torque method is then designed and applied to
both MR damper and EC motor to control the knee joint angle. It is demonstrated that the desired
knee joint angle is well achieved in different walking velocities on the ground ground.

S Online supplementary data available from stacks.iop.org/SMS/25/085009/mmedia

Keywords: magneto-rheological uid, prosthetic leg, above-knee amputees, MR damper, joint
angle control
(Some gures may appear in colour only in the online journal)

1. Introduction without any assistance is impossible. Therefore, many types

Recently, smart materials such as magneto-rheological (MR)
uid have been widely applied in mechanical and medical
areas. As well known, MR uid has liquid-like properties
without magnetic elds and forms chain-like structures when
external magnetic elds are applied. In this phase change, the
yield stress of MR uid can be controlled by the strength of
external magnetic eld. Thanks to this salient property, MR
uid has been actively researched and applied to dampers,
clutches, brakes, and various other mechanical systems [1, 2].
Recently, Choi et al developed a medical haptic device using
MR uid [3]. Furthermore, several research works on the
application of MR uid to medical devices such as prosthesis
[46]. Walking is the essential part of human life. However,
in the case of people without one or both legs, walking
of the prosthesis have been researched continuously. Most of
conventional prosthesis for above-knee (AK) amputees are
operated based on passive mechanisms. The conventional
passive type is normally made with elastic materials such as
carbon ber reinforced composite material or titanium. The
elastic of these materials helps the patients to walk more
easily. However, the patients who wear the passive prosthesis
may walk awkwardly because the passive type does not
consist of any actuator and external controller.
By contrast, the active-mode prosthesis is able to control
the desired knee joint angle like an ordinary leg. However,
not only it is expensive and heavy, but it also consumes
signicant energy [4]. On the other hand, the semi-active
mode of type prosthesis can provide a stable motion without
using any expensive sensors and actuators. Therefore, several

0964-1726/16/085009+13$33.00 1 2016 IOP Publishing Ltd Printed in the UK

Smart Mater. Struct. 25 (2016) 085009
works on the semi-active mode type of prosthesis using MR
uid have been actively undertaken. Xie et al [5] proposed a
prosthetic knee joint using an MR damper, and Li and Xie [6]
researched an AK prosthesis using an MR damper. On the
other hand, Herr [7] fabricated the MR brake for the pros-
thetic knee joint and the performance of MR brake was
experimentally investigated. In addition, in this work, the gait
algorithm has been discussed in details. It is known that the
semi active AK prosthesis using MR uid technology only is
hard to extend the leg during swing phase due to its lack of
any active actuator. Moreover, it is very hard to apply the
previous proposed prosthesis [5, 6] to patients in real
environment because its size is too large and its weight is
relatively heavy compared with the passive or active pros-
thesis due to the attachment of MR damper.
Consequently, the main technical contributions of this
work are given as follows; (1) design and test of a new
prosthesis operated in both the semi-active and active modes
to achieve high stability and wide controllability of the knee
joint angle, and (2) apply directly to the patient in real
environment with compact size and light weight. The pro-
posed AK prosthesis is composed of MR damper and elec-
tronically commutated (EC) motor. The MR damper can
mimic characteristics of human muscle by changing the
hardness with the intensity of the external magnetic eld. In
addition, MR damper effectively absorbs the impact and
vibration from the heel by controlling damping property like
the muscle [8]. It is also noted that the MR damper consumes
less energy than the active type when the prosthesis supports
the body weight. On the other hand, in order to extend the leg
during the swing phase, the EC motor is equipped for the
proposed AK prosthesis. In this work, the proposed prosthesis
is manufactured and tested on different walking conditions. In
order to control knee joint angle, a nonlinear proportional-
derivative (PD) controller is used associated with the pre-
dicted joint angle from a polynomial prediction function
(PPF). The effectiveness of the proposed control system is
demonstrated by one of authors of this work who wears the
prosthesis and walks on the ground with different walking
speeds.
2. Dynamics of human walking
Prior to formulating the dynamic control model, the basic gait
cycle of a human is explained to understand how to control
the knee joint angle. Classication of the gait cycle consists of
two main phases: the swing phase and the stance phase.
Generally, the stance phase occupies approximately 60% of
the gait cycle and the swing phase occupies approximately
40% of the gait cycle [7]. A more detailed classication of the
gait recognizes six events: heel contact (HC), foot at (FF),
mid-stance (MST), heel-off (HO), toe-off (TO) and mid-
swing (MSW) as shown in gure 1. The HC begins when the
foot contacts the ground. The hip joint is bent and the knee
joint is stretched. The thigh absorbs the impact from the foot.
In FF, the thigh moves slowly into extension. The knee exes
to 1520 of exion. In MST, the thigh moves from 10 of
J Park et al
Figure 1. Classication of the human gait cycle.
exion to extension. The knee reaches maximal exion and
then begins to extend. During this phase, the body is sup-
ported by one single leg. At this moment, the body begins to
move from force absorption at impact to force propulsion
forward. The HO begins when the heel leaves the ground. In
the TO, the thigh becomes less extended, and the toes leave
the ground. In the MSW, the knee exes about 55 but then
extends approximately 30 [911]. Because AK amputees do
not have the knee joint, shank and foot, the knee joint angle
should be predicted. In this work, a PPF using statistical
method is used. Gyro sensors are attached to the thigh and
knee. Each sensor measures the joint angles. Figure 2 shows
the measured angle data of the experimenter who is one of
authors of this work; a non-disabled. Figure 3 shows a
corresponding PPF that obtained from the results shown in
gure 2. It is noted here that in general the PPF is separated
by two one-to-one functions at the swing and stance phases so
that the knee angle can be predicted from the hip joint angle
[12, 13]. In this work, the prediction is conducted at various
times to achieve high repeatability of the PPF. The PPF
obtained in this work is given by
Swing phase
q = 8.72 + 0.33 f + 0.028 f 2 - 0.015 f 3
+ 0.002 f 4 - 4.8e - 5 f 5 - 5.6e - 6 f 6
+ 3.3e - 7 f7 - 4.8e - 9 f8.
Stance phase
q = 29.25 + 4.16 f + 0.057 f 2 - 0.022 f 3
- 5.0e - 5 f 4 + 4.0e - 5 f 5.
It is noted that the above equations are obtained through
experimentally measured values of the joint angles. In this
experiment, we measured 20 times and the average values
were used to achieve PPF. The comparison results of the
actual knee joint angle and predicted knee joint angle are
shown in gure 4. It is identied from the result that the error
between the prediction and actual data is within 10% which is
acceptable to predict the knee joint angle from the hip joint
angle.
For the designing of an appropriate MR damper in terms
of damping force and size, both the kinematic and dynamic
equations should be analyzed. Normally, the required damp-
ing force of the MR damper should be calculated by solving
2
Smart Mater. Struct. 25 (2016) 085009 J Park et al

Figure 2. Hip and knee joint angles of the participant.

Figure 4. Prediction results for random movement.

Figure 3. Polynomial prediction function.

the dynamics of the leg during walking, while the use of the
kinematic model in the overall gait cycle is important for the
analysis of two main phases; stance and swing. The thigh and
shank are taken to be rigid links connected by pins at the knee Figure 5. Kinematics of a human leg.

3
Smart Mater. Struct. 25 (2016) 085009 J Park et al

Figure 7. Control torque.

Figure 6. Control performance of the nonlinear PD controller to leg

motion: simulation.

Table 1. Parameters of the human body.

Parameter Specication Value

lt Length of thigh 419 mm
ls Length of shank 421 mm
rt Distance between knee joint 181 mm
and hip
rs Distance between knee joint and 182 mm Figure 8. Schematic conguration of the prosthetic knee.
ankle joint
ra Distance between ankle joint and 250 mm
tiptoe ankle joint angle is assumed to be xed on . In the gure,
mt Weight of thigh 5.664 kg (7.552%) and are the hip and shank joint angles, and the subscripts t,
ms Weight of shank 4.889 kg (6.519%) s, and a denote thigh, shank and ankle, respectively. mt,s are
It Moment of inertia of thigh 0.0982 kg.m2 the masses, rt,s are the distances from each joint to the mass
Is Moment of inertia of shank 0.0402 kg.m2 center, ra is the distance from the foot touching the ground to
W Weight of body 75 kg the ankle joint, It,s are the moments of inertia in the mass
Angle between sole and instep 15 center, and lt,s is the length of the thigh and shank, respec-
q Knee joint angle tively. The equations of dynamic motion can be written as
f Hip angle
written as follows [14]
f Vf Gf t
joint and hip joint as shown in gure 5. The amputees stance
leg is modeled as a two-link rigid body chain representing the
M (q , f) + + = th ,
q Vq Gq
{}k
(1 )

thigh and the shank in sagittal plane motion. In kinematics, where, M (q, f ) is the inertial matrix, Vf, q are the centripetal
the center of mass of each body is assumed to be xed and the and Coriolis torques, Gf, q are the gravitational torques, and

4
Smart Mater. Struct. 25 (2016) 085009 J Park et al

Table 2. Parameters of the prosthesis.

Parameter Specication Value

a Hinge radius 40 mm
l Length of magnetic pole 240 mm
W Weight of entire prosthesis 5 kg

th,k are the torques of the hip and knee joint. AK amputees
can move the thigh like a non-disabled; therefore, the hip joint
angle can be assumed to be perfectly controlled by the patient.
In this research, the patient controls the hip joint angle. Thus,
the equation of motion to be considered is written as by
Iq q + If f + V + G = tk . (2 )
In the above

(Is + m s rs 2) ,

Iq = (Is + m t ls 2 + m s ra 2 + m t ra 2 + m s rs 2

+ 2 (m s ls + m t rs) ra sin k) ,
- (Is + m s rs 2 + m s lt rs cos q ) ,

(Is + m s ra + m t ra + m s rs
2 2 2

Ij = + m t ls 2 + m t ls rt cos q ,
Figure 9. Conguration of the ow-mode MR damper.
+ 2m s ra rs sin k + 2m t ra ls sin k

+ m t ra rt sin (k + q )) ,

m l r sin q f 2,
Table 3. Parameters of the MR damper.
V= st s Parameter Specication Value
- m r rt (ra cos (k + q ) - ls sin q ) f ,
2

da Gap between the magnetic pole and core 1 mm

g m s rs sin (q - f)) ,
lp Length of annular duct 57 mm
G = g ((m s ra + m t ra ) cos (k + q + f) lm Length of magnetic pole 5 mm
- (l m + m r ) sin (q + f)) + W . h Viscosity of MR uid of 140CG
s t s s 0.280 Pa
d Diameter of shaft 10 mm
The top and bottom components denote the swing phase and do Housing inside diameter 28 mm
di Diameter of core 20 mm
stance phase, respectively.
On the other hand, in order to nd the required torque,
the knee joint angle is controlled using a mathematical
simulation. In this work, to control the desired knee joint negative. Thus, the poles can be calculated as follow
angle, a nonlinear PD controller which consists of PD feed-
back control term and computed torque term is used. The - Kd Kd2 - 4Iq Kp
. (5 )
computed torque term cancels the nonlinear terms in the 2 Iq
dynamic model of the leg. Therefore, the dynamics system of
the leg is linearized and stabilized. The control input torque is In this work, the control gains of Kp and Kd are chosen 1.5
then written as follows and 1.75, respectively. It is noted here that these values are
determined by undertaking many time of simulation works
Iq q + Ij j + V + G = tk , observing tracking accuracy, required damping force of MR
damper and stability violation due to the different walking
tk = Iq qd + Kp (qd - q ) + Kd (qd - q ) + Ij j + V + G ,
speeds.
(3 ) The MR damper supports the body weight in the stance
phase. Moreover, the MR damper can control the knee joint
where, qd is the desired knee joint angle, and Kp and Kd are
angle by controlling the damping force during stance phase.
control gains of the proportional and derivative terms,
The EC motor controls the knee joint angle during overall gait
respectively. Then, from equations (2) and (3), the following
cycle. Therefore, the control torque is generated by the MR
error dynamic equation is obtained
damper and EC motor except during the swing phase. The
Iq e + Kd e + Kp e = 0. (4 ) MR damper is turned off when the leg swings. Figure 6 shows
In the above e = q - qd. In order make equation (4) to be the control performance of the nonlinear PD controller
stable, the poles of the error dynamic system should be obtained from computer simulation. The parameters of the

5
Smart Mater. Struct. 25 (2016) 085009
Figure 10. Analysis results of the axisymmetric 2D magnetic eld of
the MR damper.
human body are shown in table 1; the gait cycle time is 3 s.
An actual knee joint angle matches well to the desired knee
joint angle as shown in gure 6(a). The relative error is
dramatically reduced after 1.5 s as shown in gure 6(b).
Figure 7 shows the control torque to achieve the result shown
in gure 6. In the TO, the thigh becomes extended and hence
the hip joint angular velocity is zero at changing motion from
the stance to the swing phase. It is clearly seen that at
approximately 1.55 s, the control torque is suddenly reduced
because that time is the HO phase, whereas the MR damper
6
J Park et al
Figure 11. Field-dependent yield stress of MRF 140CG.
Figure 12. Relationship between current and magnetic intensity of
the solenoid coil.
supports the body weight and controls the knee joint angle
with the EC motor before the HO phase. After the HO phase,
the EC motor only swings the prosthesis.
3. Design of the prosthesis
The schematic conguration of the prosthesis proposed in this
work is shown in gure 8. In the gure, a is the distance from
center of the hinge to the piston of the MR damper and l is the
distance from the bottom side of the prosthesis to the center of
the hinge. Fd is the damping force of the MR damper and q is
the angle of the hinge which is a degree of freedom. x is the
displacement of the piston of the MR damper; that displace-
ment depends on the angle of the hinge. The bottom side of
the MR damper is connected with the prosthesis and the 15.
MR damper piston is connected with the hinge. The pros-
thesis has the parameters listed in table 2.
Smart Mater. Struct. 25 (2016) 085009 J Park et al

Figure 14. Photograph of wearable connector.

Figure 13. Field-dependent damping force characteristics of the MR

damper: simulation.

The MR damper generates a linear damping force which

transfers to damping torque [15]:

al
tk = a Fd = Fd cos q k , (6 )
x

Where, x = a2 - 2al cos q + l 2 . From the control torque

and equation (6), we can calculate the required damping force
from equation (3). The required maximum damping force is
120 N. Figure 9 shows the conguration of the ow mode
MR damper used for the proposed prosthesis. Normally, the
MR damper includes an air chamber to balance oating
motion. However, the MR damper used in this work does not
include the air chamber to reduce the size as well as weight.
The ow mode MR damper consists of a housing, piston, MR
uid (MRF-140CG, Lord Corporation), solenoid coil, oil seal,
and magnetic core, as shown in gure 9. The oil seal causes
friction with the piston that deteriorates the performance of
MR damper. Moreover, this friction disturbs the swing of the
prosthesis during the swing phase. Accordingly, the piston is Figure 15. Conguration of the AK prosthesis.
coated using teon to reduce the friction coefcient. The
magnetic core is made of pure steel for high permeability, and damper, with the dimensions and parameters listed in table 3,
the piston and housing are made of aluminum for low is fabricated. According to the Bingham plastic model of
permeability. Thus, the magnetic eld, which is generated by plates, the damping force Fd is divided into the induced yield
the solenoid coil, ows through the magnetic core. The MR stress F and viscous components F. The damping force is

7
Smart Mater. Struct. 25 (2016) 085009 J Park et al

Figure 16. Photography of the manufactured MR damper.

Figure 18. Field-dependent damping force characteristics of the MR

damper: measured.

written as follows [16, 17]

12hlp Q l
Fd = Fh + Ft = A p + c m ty sign (v) , (7)
d i p da
3
da
where

Q = Ap v ,
b
A p = p d o 2 - d 2 -
360{da (da + d i ) + da2 ,
}
12Qh
c = 2.07 + .
di da
12Qh + 0.8p + ty da
2
2 2

In the above, Q is the volumetric ow rate of the MR uid, Ap

Figure 17. Experimental apparatus for damping force measurement.
is the effective cross-sectional area of the piston, do is the
inner diameter of the housing, di is the diameter of magnetic
core, d is the diameter of the piston rod, v is the piston
velocity, y is the yield stress of the MR uid, is the off-
state (no magnetic eld) viscosity of the MR uid, lm is the
effective axial pole length, lp is the annular duct length, and
sign(v) is used to consider the semi-active force.
In order to analyze the magnetic eld between the yield
stress of the MR uid and input current the nite element
method is used. This is undertaken using a commercial

8
Smart Mater. Struct. 25 (2016) 085009 J Park et al

Figure 19. Experimental system apparatus to control the joint angle of the AK prosthesis.

software (ANSYS), and the results are presented in gure 10.

Figure 10(a) shows the 2D magnetic ux lines of the MR
damper around the solenoid coil and gure 10(b) shows the
axisymmetric 2D elemental solution in the form of the
magnetic induction distribution. For this purpose, the rela-
tionship is developed between the yield stress and the
magnetic intensity using the graphical data provided by the
Lord Corp., USA, as shown in gure 11. The polynomial
equation is shown as follows

ty = 543H - 1.29H 2 - 0.15 10-3H 3, (8 )

Figure 20. Block diagram of the AK prosthesis to control the knee where, H is magnetic intensity. Its unit is A m1. The relation
joint angle. between magnetic intensity and current is shown in gure 12

9
Smart Mater. Struct. 25 (2016) 085009 J Park et al

Figure 21. Photograph of the tted AK prosthesis.

where, i is the current which ows through solenoid coil in

MR damper, and Cq is the polynomial coefcients. Now, the
yield stress value obtained at various levels of current is
substituted into equation (7) to obtain the damping force
shown in gure 13. Figure 13(a) shows the displacement of
the piston versus damping force. The damping force is
nonlinearly increased by increasing the current. Figure 13(b)
shows the velocity of the piston versus damping force. The
excitation frequency is 0.7 Hz. The maximum damping force
is approximately 150 N. It is remarked here that in this work
the MR damper is designed with a high viscosity term
depending on the angular velocity of the knee joint angle
because the bending angular velocity of the knee joint angle is
fast when the person falls down while walking.
It is noted here that the wearable connector is fabricated
Figure 22. Hip joint angle for each walking velocity: measured. using a gypsum mold for the non-disabled as shown in
gure 14. In gure 15, the AK prosthetic consists of an
encoder (A-5400, Mutoh Engineering), EC at motor (EC 90
in which the curve tted polynomial equation is given by at, Maxon Motor), planetary gearhead (GP 52C, Maxon
Motor), gyro sensor (MSENS-GY), the fabricated MR dam-
H = 172i + 2460 i 2 - 34 900 i 3 - 20 200 i 4 per, and the hinge. The EC at motor is used because it
+ 4.80 10 6 i 5 - 2.48 107 i 6 + 4.19 107 i 7. occupies a small space and can provide high torque. The EC
(9 ) at motor plays a role of a servo motor by obtaining the knee
joint angle data from the encoder.
To calculate the relation between the yield stress and the
current, equation (9) is subsequently substituted into
equation (8):
4. Results and discussions
21
ty = Cq i q , (10) An appropriate size of MR damper is manufactured to
q=0 implement the proposed prosthesis as shown in gure 16 and

10
Smart Mater. Struct. 25 (2016) 085009 J Park et al

Figure 24. Control inputs for each walking velocity.

Figure 23. Control performance for each walking velocity: Figure 25. Knee joint angle versus hip joint angle at different
measured. working speed.

11
Smart Mater. Struct. 25 (2016) 085009
its principal design parameters are given in table 3. Prior
attaching the MR damper to the prosthesis, the led-depen-
dent performance of the MR damper is tested using an
experimental apparatus shown in gure 17 [18]. The shaker
exciting system consists of a servo motor (GM), and the
rotary linear variable displacement transducer (rotary LVDT;
MTA-5E, Celesco), load cell (Summ-20k, Senstech), data
acquisition quantity (DAQ) assistants (PCI-6229, National
Instrument), and current amplier. The rated peak-to-peak
amplitude of the excitation is xed by 40 mm. The shaker
setup has a compatible PC-based data acquisition and
instrumentation system that can provide the data in the form
of force, velocity, and displacement in real time. The initial
position of the piston in the cylinder of MR damper is con-
trolled by the PC using a software (LabVIEW, National
Instrument). The test is performed for a number of cycles at a
xed frequency of 0.7 Hz. The test is repeated under the same
conditions but at different current values supplied to the
solenoid coil of the MR damper. The current is monitored and
supplied through the current amplier from the PC. The
current is varied from 0 to 90 mA in steps of 10 mA. The
damping force is measured by a load cell that is xed at the
top of the MR damper, and the displacement is recorded
through the LVDT. Figure 18 shows the damping force with
respect to the displacement and velocity. The damping force
is linearly increased until 90 mA with increasing current
(magnetic intensity). The maximum damping force under zero
eld conditions is 11.1 N. At the magnetic intensity of 90 mA,
the maximum damping force becomes to 150 N. Therefore,
the MR damper sufciently can provide the required damping
force of the proposed prosthesis.
Figure 19 shows an experimental system apparatus to
operate the AK prosthesis. The experimental system is com-
posed of the motor drive (EPOS 50/5, Maxon Motor), RS-
485 converter, current amplier, DC power supply, DAQ
assistant, and PC. The motor drive receives signals from the
PC using the LabVIEW and controls the EC at motor. The
gyro sensor uses the RS-485 serial communication. The input
current is amplied through the current amplier before
applying to the solenoid coil in the MR damper. The DC
power supplies are required for the current amplier, motor
drive, and gyro sensor. The desired knee joint angle is pre-
dicted from the hip joint angle which is measured by the gyro
sensor. The actual knee joint angle is directly measured by the
encoder. Therefore, the AK prosthesis is a closed single input
and single output closed-loop system including the nonlinear
PD controller as shown in gure 20. A control algorithm is
the most important part of the AK prosthesis because the
dynamics of the leg is frequently changed during walking.
Therefore, the control input is completely different during the
swing phase from that during the stance phase. In the swing
phase, control signal input to the MR damper is turned off so
that the MR damper does not resist the rotation of the EC at
motor. However, in the stance phase the MR damper supports
the body weight and controls the knee joint angle with force
from the EC at motor.
In this work, the target walking velocities are set by three
cases; 0.52, 0.72, 1.02 m s1 with the experimenter who is
12
J Park et al
walking on at ground. Figure 21 shows the photograph of the
tted AK prosthesis fabricated in this work and tted to the
experimenter who is one of authors of this study. In order to
acquire high repeatability of the test result, each experiment is
repeated ve times in the same environment condition. The
acquisition results of this test are control performance, tracking
error and control signals of the EC at motor and the MR
damper. Figure 22 shows the hip joint angle during the gait
cycle for each walking velocity. The x-axis of gure 22 indi-
cates the gait cycle from HC to MSW. According to the gure,
the range of the hip joint angle increases in accordance with
increasing walking velocity. On the other hand, the desired knee
joint angle is predicted from the hip joint angle and it is com-
pared with the actual measured joint angle as shown in
gure 23. It is seen that the desired and actual knee joint angles
agree closely. However, tracking accuracy is decreased as the
walking velocity increases. Figure 24(a) shows the control input
applied to the EC motor, while gure 24(b) presents the control
input applied to the MR damper. It is seen from the results that
the control input is increased as the walking velocity increases.
The reason why the tracking error of the knee joint angle is
degraded as the walking velocity increases is closely related to
the response time of the MR damper. Moreover, the MR uid
does not rapidly return to the liquid state by turn-off the current
because the magnetic core in the MR damper is still magne-
tized. This phenomenon resists the stretching knee joint during
the swing phase. This drawback of the proposed prosthesis
needs to be resolved by optimizing the ow path and walking
motion. However, it is clearly observed from gure 23 that
control performance of the proposed system is fairly good until
1. 57 m s1 of the walking speed. Figure 25 shows the rela-
tionship between the knee joint angle and the hip joint angle at
three different walking speeds. It is observed from the result that
as the speed increase the higher knee joint angle occurs at the
hip joint angle of 18. This directly indicates the coupled
movement behavior between the knee and hip joint angles.
5. Conclusion
In this work, a new prosthesis for AK amputees featuring both
semi-active and active modes was proposed and its effec-
tiveness was experimentally demonstrated. An appropriate
size of MR damper was designed and manufactured and its
eld-dependent characteristics such as damping force were
measured. A nonlinear PD controller was designed on the
basis of the dynamic motion of the human walking. In the
synthesis of the controller, a PPF has been used to predict the
knee joint angle which is the desired joint angle to be tracked
by two actuators; MR damper and EC motor. In order to
increase the accuracy of the PPF, the joint angles were
measured many times during separate stance and swing
phases. After establishing experimental apparatus, an
experimenter equipped with the proposed AK prosthesis
undertook several tests at different walking velocities. This
test was performed on the level ground. It has shown that the
actual knee joint angle fairly follows the desired angle at low
walking velocity. However, as the walking velocity increases
Smart Mater. Struct. 25 (2016) 085009
the tracking accuracy has been degraded due to the slow time
response of the MR damper. In order to enhance control
performance and realize in practical environment, the fol-
lowing three issues need to be further studied. Firstly, a
proper algorithm of gait cycle which can provide better acc-
uracy than the PPF for the prediction of the desired values
needs to be developed because the proposed prediction
method which predicts the knee joint angle from the hip joint
angle using the statistical method may be inappropriate when
AK amputee encounters disturbance or obstacle. Secondly,
the optimal design of MR damper to improve the response
time during the turn-off the period should be undertaken to
achieve better accuracy in wide range of walking velocities.
Lastly, an experimental test needs to be undertaken on
inclined slope ground in which a safety device is absolutely
required for emergency case; loss of stability and controll-
ability. These issues will be undertaken as future works by
adopting two control strategies; the use of the nite state
controller based on the dynamic model with optimal gain
scheduling and the use appropriate controllers which do not
require exact dynamic model of the control system.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by National Research Foundation of
Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (MEST)
(No. 2015R1A2A1A5054000). This nancial support is
gratefully acknowledged.
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