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：动力踝关节假肢能够有效辅助下肢截肢者完成日常活动。具备可调柔顺性且能够预测并实现截肢者运动意图的高性能假肢，对于使其达到甚至超越真实肢体功能至关重要。然而，当前设计未能实现兼具简单有效与充分改进潜力的关节柔顺性，且缺乏实时精准的步态预测方法。本文提出了一种采用串联弹性驱动器的创新动力踝关节假肢设计，并基于MLP提出一种步态识别方法，可准确连续预测更多步态参数，用于运动感知与控制。该假肢模拟生物关节特性，具有相近的体重、扭矩和功率，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，较现有方案具有更优的刚度、耐久性和改进潜力。步态识别系统仅利用单个IMU信号即可同时生成运动速度、步态相位、踝关节角度及角速度，在连续性、速度范围适应性、准确性和多功能能力方面具有优势。