I-Corps: Automatic Tuning for Prosthesis Based on Physiological Feedback

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The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is to provide automatic prosthetic tuning technology that will enable the optimization of metabolic energy expenditure in impaired gait of amputee users. This product will simplify the process of tuning and will increase the performance of powered prosthetic legs to better assist users and provide more balance while maintaining a lower energy expenditure on residual muscles. Due to the product's user-friendly structure, it could easily be used in less-equipped environments, which will make the technology more accessible and eliminate the discomfort of long commutes to the prosthetic laboratory or clinics. This is a cost-effective solution for not only broader use of powered prosthetic legs, but also better efficiency of prosthetic laboratory and clinics to serve more prosthetic users. This will reduce the cost of maintaining powered prosthetic legs and, broaden the facilities that would offer these types of services. Also, since the system is automated a clinician will replace some of the tasks typically done by prosthetic experts, which is expected to reduce overall costs.This I-Corps project will explore the commercial potential of the core technology. Lower limb amputees use prosthetics for daily walking; however, walking with prosthesis typically requires much more metabolic energy expenditure than people with normal gait. Current state-of-the-art technology provides powered prosthetic legs to better assist amputees. To have the best assistance and to increase balance, these legs require a meticulous tuning procedure. It is currently conducted using an observation-based approach by prosthetic experts; however, this approach is not accurate and lacks objectivity. The developed technology is able to wirelessly collect body area sensor signals and provide computational algorithms to automatically setup powered prosthetic legs, which provides a novel and efficient technique for optimizing the metabolic energy expenditure in impaired gait of amputees. This technology will enable an accurate and objective tuning for the users, which is cost effective because it may reduce the need for frequent prosthetic clinics for prosthesis adaptation. In addition, the objective and accurate tuning will maximize the use of powered prosthetic legs.