Upslope walking with a powered knee and ankle prosthesis: initial results with an amputee subject

This paper extends a previously developed level- ground walking control methodology to enable an above knee amputee to walk up slopes using a powered knee and ankle prosthesis. Experimental results corresponding to walking on level ground and two different slope angles (5 (°) and 10 (°)) with the powered prosthesis using the control method are compared to walking under the same conditions with a passive prosthesis. The data indicate that the powered prosthesis with the upslope walking controller is able to reproduce several kinematic characteristics of healthy upslope walking that the passive prosthesis does not (such as knee flexion after heel strike and a powered ankle plantarflexion during push-off). Finally, results are shown that demonstrate the ability of the prosthesis to generate a slope estimate, which is in turn utilized to adapt the underlying control parameters to the corresponding slope.