Ruggedized Odyssey Prosthetic Ankle

Written on October 6th, 2021 by Geoffrey Clark

In my time at SpringActive I helped develop an intelligent, powered ankle prosthesis called the Ruggedized Odyssey ankle. This robotic prosthesis provides the user with a fully-powered and properly timed push-off, picks the toe up in the swing phase, and produces a natural and energy-efficient gait for amputees. Additionally, the prosthesis was both mechanically and chemically waterproofed to the IPX8 standard for fully submerged use. My contribution focused on the electronic and control system design and selection. The prosthesis utilized a 9-degree-of-freedom inertial measurement unit and magnetic encoder on the ankle joint to determine the state of the human-robot system. A PID-based phase controller calculates motor torque which is sent to our custom motor module over CAN. Coding was done with real-time MatLab and embedded C. In addition, I developed real-time data collection software along with a GUI that prosthetists could use to tune the device on patients.

In the odyssey ankle prosthesis, a compliant actuator stores the natural braking energy from the stride, while a small, lightweight motor adds additional energy to each step. The prosthesis is, therefore, capable of fully-powered walking and running. And the only prosthetic ankle to demonstrate fully powered walking and running while completely submerged in water, over uneven terrain, and in unconstrained environments.

Further Information

For further information, please consult the video below: