IP Library › Granted Patent US 8,617,254
Granted Patent B2
US 8,617,254 · App. 12/692,438 · Granted Dec 31, 2013

Control system and method for a prosthetic knee

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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 8,617,254
App. No.
12/692,438
Granted
Dec 31, 2013
Kind
B2
Abstract

A prosthetic or orthotic system including a magnetorheological (MR) damper. The MR damper may be configured to operate in shear mode. In one embodiment, the MR damper includes a rotary MR damper. A controller is configured to operate the damper. A mobile computing device may be adapted to intermittently communicate configuration parameters to the controller. A method of configuring a prosthetic or orthotic system is also disclosed.

Claims (16)

1. A method of controlling a prosthetic having a movement damper, comprising:

measuring at least one characteristic of prosthetic movement;

calculating a damping value based at least partly on the at least one characteristic;

applying a filter, wherein the filter receives a calculated current, to filter the damping value based at least partly on input of values of previous damping values to the filter; and

applying the damping value to control resistance of a damper.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein applying the damping value comprises applying the damping value to a rotary magnetorheological damper operating in shear mode.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein measuring the at least one characteristic of prosthetic movement comprises measuring a knee angle.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein measuring the at least one characteristic of prosthetic movement comprises measuring load using a load sensor.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the load sensor comprises at least one strain gauge.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the damper is configured to vary resistance to rotation in response to the current.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein filtering comprises filtering increases to said damping value differently than decreases to said damping value.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising identifying a control state based at least partly on the at least one characteristic.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising adjusting parameters for identifying the control state.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein adjusting parameters for identifying the control state is in response to receiving a signal comprising an instruction to adaptively adjust the parameters during operation of the damper.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein the parameters comprise target values for the at least one characteristic of prosthetic movement.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the filter is a fixed point infinite impulse response filter.