Gait Emulator for Evaluation of Ankle–Foot Prostheses Capable of Turning¹

One of the challenges in the development of prostheses is the testing and tuning of the mechanism before testing with human subjects. It is a common practice in the industry to use testing platforms to tests new products for different properties such as strength and fatigue; however, few platforms have been developed for testing and tuning of ankle–foot prosthesis. Before testing the lower extremity prostheses with human subjects, the designers need to assure that the device would perform as designed, otherwise it may result in injury. Another issue that may arise is the lack of repeatability during evaluation experiments with human subjects. Humans have a remarkable ability to adapt to new environments; hence, studying the effects of any tuning in the prosthesis performance may not be conclusive, as it may not always be clear if the outcomes are due to the changes in the prosthesis, or due to the adaptation...