This artificial foot uses a small battery to fuel a microprocessor controller – but the main energy is stored and then released by walking. This shows that despite all gadgetry being twiddled with in academic research, great mechanically intelligent prosthetic design still can be found.
Links:
- Collins, Steven H. AND Kuo, Arthur D., Recycling Energy to Restore Impaired Ankle Function during Human Walking, in: PLoS ONE, volume 5, number 2, pages e9307, 2010 [research paper]
- University of Michigan News Service
(C) Copyright University of Michigan
For prosthetic hands this could indicate that
- taking advantage of best controls of both body powered and electronically coordinated designs may be better than just using either / or,
- and there are engineers that are up for it after all.