Control of prosthetic gait

Recent advances in two types of prosthetic gait are particularly noteworthy, namely work on limb and neural prostheses. Current work on artificial limbs has been oriented towards improving devices, with commercialization as the driving force. Progress has been made in understanding how the compliant properties of the foot, ankle and knee joints of artificial legs affect the energetics and kinematics of gait. Work is continuing on automated systems for fabricating sockets with improved fit to increase the comfort of artificial limbs. Neural prostheses use electrical stimulation to activate paralyzed muscle. Advances have been made in understanding how to model the patterns of neural prosthetic gait and how neural prostheses respond to disturbances. Work in real-time control of stimulated muscle has progressed in the area of system identification and in using natural sensors for feedback signals. There still remains a wide gap, however, between able-bodied gait and the gait that can be achieved using current neural prosthesis systems.