Abstract
The synergetic prosthetic system comprises of a knee and an ankle sleeve on the functional leg and a prosthesis on the amputated leg. Each sleeve comprises of a power supply, an accelerometer, a wireless transmitter and a wire connecting the accelerometer to the wireless transmitter. The prosthesis comprises of a power supply, a microcontroller, servo motors, a knee joint assembly, and an ankle joint assembly. A steel rod covered with a casing connects the knee and ankle joints. The accelerometer measures and transmits the angle of rotation of the functional knee and ankle joint to a microcontroller. The microcontroller pre-programmed with normal gait data pairs the data from the healthy leg and controls the servo motors. The servo motors, move the prosthetic joints to mimic a normal human gait.
Claims
1. A synergetic prosthesis system comprising: a knee sleeve worn on the healthy leg an ankle sleeve worn on the healthy leg a prosthesis with knee joint assembly a prosthesis with ankle joint assembly
2. The synergetic prosthesis system of claim 1, further comprising an accelerometer attached to the knee sleeve.
3. The synergetic prosthesis system of claim 1, further comprising an accelerometer attached to the ankle sleeve.
4. The synergetic prosthesis system of claim 2, wherein the accelerometer on the healthy leg measures the knee angle of rotation that is transmitted to the microcontroller.
5. The synergetic prosthesis system claim 3, wherein the accelerometer cm the healthy leg measures the ankle angle of rotation that is transmitted to the microcontroller.
6. The synergetic prosthesis system of claim 4 and claim 5, wherein the microcontroller receives the knee and the ankle angle of rotation signals from the healthy leg.
7. The synergetic prosthesis system of claim 11, wherein the microcontroller compares the knee and the ankle angle of rotation from the health leg to the preprogrammed normal human gait cycle knee and the ankle angle of rotation.
8. The synergetic prosthesis system of claim 7, wherein the micro-controller sends the output signals to servo motors to move the prosthetic knee and the ankle joints.
Description
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0013] Note: For simplicity of illustration, bearings, nuts, bolts, washers, and minutiae of common prosthesis industry hardware are not depicted as they are known to those with skill in the art. When they are shown, it is purely for illustrative purposes and not intended to capture all embodiments of the invention disclosed.
[0014] FIG. 1 is a perspective assembled view of the knee and ankle sleeves.
[0015] FIG. 2 is an exploded view of the knee sleeve shown in FIG. 1.
[0016] FIG. 3 is an exploded view of the ankle sleeve shown in FIG. 1.
[0017] FIG. 4 is a perspective assembled view of the synergetic prosthesis with the knee and the ankle joint
[0018] FIG. 5 is an exploded view of the prosthetic knee and the ankle joint shown in FIG. 4.
[0019] FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing an example of a control system for the synergetic prosthetic system as shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 4.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION AND PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
[0020] The following is a detailed description of exemplary embodiments to illustrate the principles of the invention. The embodiments are provided to illustrate aspects of the invention, but the invention is not limited to any embodiment. The scope of the invention encompasses numerous alternatives, modifications and equivalent; it is limited only by the claims.
[0021] Numerous specific details are set forth in the following description in order to provide a thorough understanding of the invention. However, the invention may be practiced according to the claims without some or all of these specific details. For the purpose of clarity, technical material that is known in the technical fields related to the invention has not been described in detail so that the invention is not unnecessarily obscured.
Definitions
[0022] a. Accelerometera sensor that reads the angle of rotation while measuring the acceleration forces [0023] b. Microcontrollera control board that allows various types of input/output devices to interface with the board [0024] c. Servo motoris a rotary actuator or linear actuator that allows for precise control of angular or linear positions, velocity and acceleration [0025] d. Synergythe interaction or cooperation of two or more organizations, substances, or other agents to produce a combined effect greater than the sum of their separate effects. [0026] e. Human Gait Cyclethe precise, mapped cycle of the way humans walk Human gait refers to locomotion achieved through the movement of human limbs
[0027] In FIG. 1, a perspective view of the knee and ankle sleeves (1) of the healthy leg are shown. A flexible, polyester knee sleeve (2) will slide over the patient's shin. An aluminum plate (4) is placed on the sleeve (2) to hold an accelerometer (5), and a wireless transmitter (6). A power supply (32), as shown in FIG. 6, supplies power to the accelerometer (5) and the wireless transmitter (6). The accelerometer (5) reads the angle of rotation when the knee is moving. To ensure the accelerometer (5) measure the same angles and readings for each stride the amputee takes, two positional markers (34) on the knee sleeve (2) are used to properly match with the position markers on the shin. A connecting wire (7) transfers the readings from the accelerometer to the wireless transmitter (6). The wireless transmitter (6) transmits the readings to the microcontroller (33), shown in FIG. 6. Another flexible, polyester foot sleeve (3) will slide over the patient's foot and has the same components and purpose as the knee sleeve (2). An aluminum plate (4) is placed on the foot sleeve (3) to hold an accelerometer (5), and a wireless transmitter (6). A power supply (32), as shown in FIG. 6, supplies power to the accelerometer (5) and the wireless transmitter (6). The accelerometer (5) reads the angle of rotation when the ankle is moving. To ensure the accelerometer (5) measures the same angles and readings for each stride the amputee takes, two positional markers (34) on the foot sleeve (2) are used to properly match with the position markers on the foot. The connecting wire (7) transfers the readings from the accelerometer to the wireless transmitter (6). The wireless transmitter (6) transmits the readings to the microcontroller (33), shown in FIG. 6.
[0028] In FIG. 2, an exploded view of the knee sleeve (2) is shown. The accelerometer (5), the connecting wire (7), the wireless transmitter (6), the position markers (34), and the aluminum plate (4) can be seen in detail.
[0029] In FIG. 3, an exploded view of the ankle sleeve (3) is shown. The accelerometer (5), the connecting wire (7), the wireless transmitter (6), the position markers (34), and the aluminum plate (4) can be seen in detail.
[0030] In FIG. 4, a perspective view of the synergetic prosthesis (8) is shown. The prosthetic knee joint (9) is responsible for moving the leg forwards and backwards. In order to do this, two servo motors (16) are connected. They are mounted by 4 screws (17) to a horizontal support member (18). The two servo motors (16) are placed vertically to conserve space in the vertical direction. As the two servo motors (16) need to move the entire leg, a gearbox (15) is needed to increase the torque the servo motor (16) produce. A metal shaft (14) is used to transfer the motion to an inverted gear (13). As the servo motors (16) is produce motion in the horizontal direction, a second gear (11) is needed to convert the horizontal motion to vertical motion. This gear (11) contains a steel hall bearing (27) for a smoother motion. A small, steel shaft (28), as shown in FIG. 5, is used to connect this gear (11) and the bearing (27) to a vertical support member (12). To secure this shaft (28), a sleeve is inserted into the vertical member (12). This vertical support member (12) is connected to the horizontal support member (18) by 2 identical screws (17). In order to move the leg, the bottom of the gear (11) is connected to a small, vertical member (19) which is connected to a small, horizontal member (20). This member (20) is attached to a steel rod (29), as shown in FIG. 5. A strong, durable, metal casing (21) covers this steel rod. The base of the steel rod (29) is connected to another horizontal support member (23) which is the beginning of the prosthetic foot. The prosthetic ankle joint (22) contains the support member (23), which is connected to the steel rod (29). The ankle joint (22) moves independently of the knee joint (9). The support member (23) is connected to two other diagonal support members (24). These members (24) hold two servo motors (16) that move the foot. A metal studding (25), as shown in FIG. 4, connects the two motors to a copper foot (30), as shown in FIG. 6. This copper foot is covered by a metal casing (26).
[0031] FIG. 5 shows an exploded view of the synergetic prosthesis (8) mentioned in FIG. 4. The exploded view of the knee joint (9) and the exploded view of the ankle joint (22) is shown. The steel shaft (28), the ball bearing (27), the screws (17), the vertical steel rod (29), the foot horizontal support member (23X the diagonal support members (24) that hold the motors (16), the studding (25), the copper foot (30), and the metal casing (26) can be clearly seen. In addition, (35) is a spacer used to connect the two horizontal support members (18) to prevent the gears from interlocking.
[0032] FIG. 6 depicts a block diagram of the control system (31). The power supply (32) provides power for the accelerometers (5) and the wireless transmitters (6). The two accelerometers (5) reads the angle of rotation for both the knee and the ankle and the wireless transmitters (6) sends the signals to the microcontroller (33). The microcontroller controls the two servo motors (16) based on the angles the accelerometer reads. Another power supply (32) provides power to the microcontroller (33) and the servo motors (16).
