SBIR Phase I: A SWING-ASSIST KNEE PROSTHESIS FOR INCREASING MOBILITY IN TRANSFEMORAL AMPUTEES

SBIR 第一阶段：用于增加经股骨截肢者活动能力的摆动辅助膝关节假体

• 批准号: 1843764
• 负责人: Harrison Bartlett
• 金额: $ 22.36万
• 依托单位: SYNCHRO MOTION LLC
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-02-01 至 2020-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1843764&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; SWING; ASSIST; KNEE

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to make walking both safer and easier for transfemoral amputees. Falling and fear of falling are pervasive in this population. Transfemoral amputees fall at a rate approximately 200 times that of healthy age-matched individuals, and they seek medical attention from falls at the same rate as the institution-living elderly. Such falls result most commonly from a lack of full knee extension in late swing, combined with a lack of knee proprioception, in which case the user enters a non-recoverable knee buckling state shortly after loading. This project proposes a knee prosthesis that provides a powered, motion-controlled knee swing which guarantees full knee extension prior to heel strike, and it therefore substantially reduces the likelihood of a fall. Further, powered knee movement lessens the need for compensatory movements, and therefore the effort required for walking is lessened. As a result, the proposed knee will provide safer and easier walking, enabling users to walk with greater confidence. The prosthesis will be reimbursable under current reimbursement codes and will result in improved mobility, health, and quality of life for end users.This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) project proposes a novel knee prosthesis that incorporates a hybrid approach to providing the two major functions of a knee prosthesis: stance and swing control. In this device, stance control is provided by a polycentric joint, while swing control utilizes a small motor for assistance. Consequently, the proposed device is called a polycentric swing-assist (PSA) knee. Unlike a passive extension aid employed in a typical polycentric knee, the swing-assist motor is able to aid both flexion in mid swing and extension in late swing. The PSA prosthesis is intended to inject small amounts of power during the swing phase of gait in order to guide the knee through the swing trajectory. Since the assistance is associated with low-torque and low-power movements, the motor, transmission, and battery can be small, lightweight, and quiet relative to a fully-powered knee prosthesis. The goal of this work is to design, construct, and test a PSA knee prototype. The efficacy of the prosthesis prototype will be compared to a commercial knee. The investigators will test whether or not the prosthesis better emulates healthy kinematics through outcome measures such as toe clearance and peak knee flexion across walking speeds.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

这个小企业创新研究 (SBIR) 第一阶段项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是让股骨截肢者的行走变得更安全、更轻松。跌倒和对跌倒的恐惧在这一人群中普遍存在。股骨截肢者的跌倒率约为同龄健康人的 200 倍，他们因跌倒而寻求医疗救助的比率与生活在机构中的老年人相同。这种跌倒最常见的原因是在摆动后期缺乏完全的膝盖伸展，再加上缺乏膝盖本体感觉，在这种情况下，使用者在加载后不久就会进入不可恢复的膝盖屈曲状态。该项目提出了一种膝关节假体，它提供动力、运动控制的膝关节摆动，保证在脚跟着地之前膝关节完全伸展，因此大大降低了跌倒的可能性。此外，动力膝关节运动减少了代偿运动的需要，因此步行所需的力气也减少了。因此，所提出的膝盖将提供更安全、更轻松的行走，使用户能够更有信心地行走。该假肢将根据当前的报销代码进行报销，并将改善最终用户的活动能力、健康和生活质量。这个小型企业创新研究 (SBIR) 项目提出了一种新型膝关节假体，它采用混合方法来提供膝关节假体的两个主要功能：站立和摆动控制。在该装置中，站立控制由多中心关节提供，而摆动控制则利用小型电机进行辅助。因此，所提出的装置被称为多中心摆动辅助（PSA）膝盖。与典型的多中心膝关节中使用的被动伸展辅助装置不同，摆动辅助电机能够帮助摆动中期的弯曲和摆动后期的伸展。 PSA 假肢旨在在步态摆动阶段注入少量动力，以引导膝盖完成摆动轨迹。由于辅助与低扭矩和低功率运动相关，因此与全动力膝关节假体相比，电机、变速器和电池可以更小、更轻且更安静。这项工作的目标是设计、构建和测试 PSA 膝关节原型。假肢原型的功效将与商业膝盖进行比较。研究人员将通过脚趾间隙和步行速度下的峰值膝关节弯曲等结果测量来测试假肢是否能更好地模拟健康的运动学。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优点和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。