| dc.description.abstract | This dissertation presents the motivation, development, and evaluation of controllers for powered lower limb prostheses. This document contains five chapters, three of which discuss individual contributions. Chapter I describes the motivation, background, and scope of the work. Chapter II presents an activity level controller for running with a powered knee and ankle prosthesis, a supervisory controller to switch between running and walking for use in emergency situations, and evaluation of the set of controllers with an amputee subject. Chapter III introduces a suite of controllers for a powered ankle prosthesis for walking at multiple speeds on level ground and supportive ground adaptive standing for use on a large range of inclines, with a supervisory controller to provide natural transitions between the two, all evaluated with an amputee subject. Chapter IV describes research regarding ambulation on even and uneven terrain, with a healthy subject study revealing chiefly a relationship between shank angle and ankle moment during the middle stance phase of walking which exists on both even and uneven terrain; this motivated a walking controller for a powered ankle prosthesis which adapts to terrain with variable local slope, evaluated on an amputee subject. Finally, Chapter V offers some concluding remarks, including suggestions for future work. | |
