Thursday, August 25, 2011

New Bionic Leg Thinks and Moves Like a Real Limb

This new leg—using recent advances in motor, processing, and sensor technology—walks and reacts just like a real leg. Here's how:

Developed at the Vanderbilt University the leg uses both a powered knee and powered ankle, operating in unison to lift the foot and swing it forward naturally, eliminating the dragging-gait seen with traditional prosthetics. It also uses an advanced sensor suite to monitor the leg's motion, momentum and position, feeding that data into processors that predict the user's intention and react accordingly. The leg's anti-stumble routine, for example, monitors the leg's position and momentum. If it senses the user stumbling, the leg automatically lifts the foot clear of the obstacle before replanting in on the ground.

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