Highly Integrated Active Ankle-Prosthesis powered by an Optimized Lead-Screw Mechanism

Active ankle prostheses represent a field of growing interest for both industrial and academic researchers. The need of more functional devices, combined with the need of compact, light-weight and energy-efficient systems set a challenge to prosthesis designers. In this work, the authors try to give a solution to this problem by proposing a novel design of a lead-screw based active ankle prosthesis. The adopted approach aimed at optimizing the overall volume and weight of the actuating unit, while at the same time keeping the capability to satisfy both stance and swing phase requirements. A preliminary experimental evaluation has been carried out on a healthy subject to demonstrate the capabilities of the developed device in terms of stance braking torque and swing foot flexion.