Powered ankle prostheses effectively assist people with lower limb amputation to perform daily activities. High performance prostheses with adjustable compliance and capability to predict and implement amputee's intent are crucial for them to be comparable to or better than a real limb. However, current designs fail to provide simple yet effective compliance of the joint with full potential of modification, and lack accurate gait prediction method in real time. This paper proposes an innovative design of powered ankle prosthesis with serial elastic actuator (SEA), and puts forward a MLP based gait recognition method that can accurately and continuously predict more gait parameters for motion sensing and control. The prosthesis mimics biological joint with similar weight, torque, and power which can assist walking of up to 4 m/s. A new design of planar torsional spring is proposed for the SEA, which has better stiffness, endurance, and potential of modification than current designs. The gait recognition system simultaneously generates locomotive speed, gait phase, ankle angle and angular velocity only utilizing signals of single IMU, holding advantage in continuity, adaptability for speed range, accuracy, and capability of multi-functions.

翻译：动力踝假肢能够有效辅助下肢截肢者完成日常活动。具备可调柔顺性以及预测并实现截肢者意图能力的高性能假肢，对其达到甚至超越真实肢体的功能至关重要。然而，当前设计未能提供简单有效且具备完全修改潜力的关节柔顺性，同时缺乏实时的精确步态预测方法。本文提出了一种采用串联弹性驱动器的动力踝假肢的创新设计，并开发了一种基于MLP的步态识别方法，能够准确连续地预测更多步态参数，用于运动感知与控制。该假肢在重量、扭矩和功率上模拟生物关节，可辅助最高4米/秒的行走速度。针对串联弹性驱动器提出了一种新型平面扭簧设计，与现有设计相比具有更优的刚度、耐久性和修改潜力。步态识别系统仅利用单个惯性测量单元信号，即可同步生成移动速度、步态相位、踝关节角度及角速度，在连续性、速度范围适应性、精度及多功能性方面具有优势。