Design and Evaluation of a Knee Flexion Assistance Exoskeleton for People with Transtibial Amputation

People with below-knee amputation walk with asymmetric gaits that over time can lead to further musculoskeletal disorders and decreased quality of life. While prosthesis technology is improving, prosthetic ankles may be fundamentally limited in their ability to restore healthy walking patterns because they do not assist the residual knee joint. The knee on the residual limb has muscular deficits due to the loss of the gastrocnemius, a biarticular muscle that crosses both the ankle and knee. Here we present the design, development, and preliminary evaluation of a robotic knee exoskeleton for people with transtibial amputation. The device is intended to restore gastrocnemius-like flexion moments to the knee on the residual limb. The exoskeleton uses a custom offboard actuation and control system to allow for a simple and lightweight design with high torque capabilities. A preliminary walking experiment with one person with transtibial amputation was conducted. The exoskeleton provided a range of knee flexion torque profiles and had an RMS tracking error of 1.9 Nm across four assistance conditions. This device will be used in future studies to explore the effects of providing knee flexion assistance to people with transtibial amputation during walking. Long term, findings from studies with this exoskeleton could motivate future assistive device designs that improve walking mechanics and quality of life for people with limb loss.