July, 2022

Bionic prosthesis prototype

Affordable knee and ankle prosthesis prototype.

mechatronics

machine learning

tensorflow micro

arduino

teensy

imu

servo

encoder

3d printing

machining

CAD

capstone

brushless

Overview

This project presents the design and fabrication of a prototype of bionic prosthesis for transfemoral amputees. It consists of two joints, knee and ankle, powered by brushless motors. The device interfaces with standard sockets through a pyramid adapter. The main structure is 3d printed in PLA+ and precision parts were machined in aluminum. The control strategy is based on machine learning algorithms implemented on an ARM cortex-M7 microcontroller. The total hardware cost is under one thousand US dollars. The components used are hobby-grade.

The global objective is to create a prototype that serves as ground and inspiration for the development of more accessible assistive devices.

This was the capstone project for my undergraduate degree.

For more information and multimedia check this project's post at Hackaday.io.

Attribution

Main design inspiration comes from Matt Carney, PhD's work at the Biomechatronics MIT lab. His thesis, called "Design and Evaluation of a Reaction-Force Series Elastic Actuator Configurable as Biomimetic Powered Ankle and Knee Prostheses" was a key resource for this work. Although this is a much simpler and less spec'd version, I intended to give it a try with a restricted budget and with purely hobby components.