• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.165-171
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• 2016

A prosthetic knee for above-knee (AK) amputee is categorized into passive and active type. The passive prosthetic knee is generally made by elastic material. Although AK amputee can easily walk by using passive prosthetic leg, knee joint motions are not similar to ordinary persons. The active prosthetic leg can control the knee angle owing to the actuator and microprocessor. However, the active type is not cost-effective and the stability may be lost due to the malfunction of sensors. In order to resolve these disadvantages of passive and active type, a semi-active prosthetic knee which can control the knee angle is proposed in this work. The proposed semi-active one requires a less input energy but provides active type performance. In order to achieve this goal, in this work, a semi-active prosthetic knee using magneto-rheological (MR) damper for AK amputees is designed. The MR damper can support the weight of body by using less energy than actuator of active prosthetic. It can control knee angle by inducing the magnetic field at the time of stance phase. This salient characteristic is evaluated and presented in this work.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.31 no.10
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• pp.913-922
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• 2014

This paper describes design of a robotic above-knee prosthetic leg which is powered by electrical motors. As a special feature, the robotic prosthetic leg has enough D.O.F.s. For mimicking the human leg, the robotic prosthetic leg is composed of five joints. Three of them are called 'active joint' which is driven by electrical motors. They are placed at the knee-pitch-axis, the ankle-pitch-axis, and the an! kle-roll-axis. Every 'active joint' has enough torque capacity to overcome ground reaction forces for walking and is backlashless for accurate motion generation and high-performance balance control. Other two joints are called 'passive joint' which is activating by torsion spring. They are placed at the toe part and designed by Crank-rocker mechanism using kinematic design approach. In order to verify working performance of the robotic prosthetic leg, we designed a gait trajectory through motion capture technique and experimentally applied it to the robot.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.24 no.8 s.197
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• pp.130-137
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• 2007

The optimized prosthetic mass distribution was a controversial problem in the previous studies because they are not supported by empirical evidence. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the effect of prosthetic mass properties by modeling musculoskeletal system, based on the gait analysis data from two above-knee amputees. The joint torque at hip joint was calculated using inverse dynamic analysis as the mass was changed in knee and foot prosthetic components with the same joint kinematics. The results showed that the peak flexion and abduction torque at the hip joint were 5 Nm and 15 Nm when the mass of the knee component was increased, greater than the peak flexion and abduction torque of the control group at the hip joint, respectively. On the other hand, when the mass of the foot component was increased, the peak flexion and abduction torque at the hip joint were 20 Nm and 15 Nm, greater than the peak flexion and abduction torque of the control, respectively. The hip flexion torque was 4.71-fold greater and 7.92-fold greater than the hip abduction torque for the knee mass increase and the foot mass increase on the average, respectively. Therefore, we could conclude that the effect of foot mass increase was more sensitive than that of knee mass increase for the hip flexion torque. On the contrary, the mass properties of the knee and foot components were not sensitive for the hip abduction torque. In addition, optimized prosthetic mass and appropriate mass distributions were needed to promote efficiency of rehabilitation therapy with consideration of musculoskeletal systems of amputees.

• Physical Therapy Korea
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.65-72
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• 1996

The purpose of this study was to introduce rotation-plasty procedure and prosthetic ambulation training. The recent development of chemotherapy and diagnostic facility have permitted the orthopaedic surgeons to try limb saving procedures rather than amputations for the treatment of the malignant bone tumors. If the tumors around the knee joint were treated by mid-thigh amputation or hip disarticulation, it would impose the client with a great handicap for rehabilitation. Rotation-plasty procedure was first done by Borggreve, in 1930 for the congenital short femur. Recently this procedure was used a malignant bone tumor at the distal femur by Kotz and Salzer in 1982. In spite of its cosmetic problem of the distal stump, this procedure has the great functional advantage of converting the above-knee amputation to the below-knee amputation. The inverted foot was also good to control the prosthesis as a below-knee stump and heel functioned as a patella to support the body weight. This 15 years old girl case was had rotation-plasty due to osteosarcoma of the distal femur with 3rd postoperative chemotherapy, and admitted to Yonsei rehabilitation hospital for prosthetic ambulation training. Then, the case had excellent functional results of prosthetic ambulation training with rotaion-plasty after 3 months.

• Proceedings of the KOSOMBE Conference
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• v.1998 no.11
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• pp.88-89
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• 1998

In this paper, a transfemoral prosthesis with a microprocessor controlled pneumatic knee developed at KOREC is presented. The resistance of the knee is changed automatically via a microprocessor as the amputee's gait speed changes, so that the prosthetic side of the amputee can follow the sound limb. Gait analysis has been conducted to evaluate the performance of the developed prosthesis and the improvement of the gait pattern including the gait symmetry was observed.

• Korean Journal of Applied Biomechanics
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.131-142
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• 2005

This study was investigated the stability of the AK amputee gait through analysing the variability on kinematic variables between the sound leg and the prosthetic limb. The one male, AK amputee who could walk for himself with his prosthetic limb was participated in this study. Six cameras of the MCU 240 and the QTM(Qualisys Track Manager) software were used for data collecting in this study. The relative angle of both segments was the difference between the absolute angle of the distal segment and the absolute angle of the proximal segment. The coupling angles between the prosthetic limb and the sound leg were caculated on the thigh Flexion/Extension in relative to the shank Flexion/Extension and the shank Flexion/Extension n relative to the foot Flexion/Extension. In order to evaluate the variability of segment and joint angle, C.V. was used, and to evaluate the variability for coupling angles, the Relative motion calculated by vector coding method of the continuous methods was used. As stated, the gait pattern of the prosthetic limb was almost similar gait pattern of the sound leg, but the prosthetic limb showed that the gait pattern of the sound leg and the prosthetic limb were not stable against the sound leg.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.519-530
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• 1998

In this paper, the basic study on the design of the flexible keel of the energy-storage prosthetic foot was performed in order to Improve the walking performance and Increase the activities of the below knee amputees. Based on the analysis of the anthropometric data and the normal gait on two dimensional sagittal plane available In the literature, we presented a model of the basic structure of the flexible keel of the prosthetic foot. The model of the basic structure was composed of the simple beams, and linear rotational spring and damper. Laminated carbon fiber-reinforced composites were selected as the material of the basic structure model of the flexible keel In order to apply the high strength and light weight materials to the basic structure of the flexible keel of the prosthetic foot. The recoverable strain energy In response to the change of beam shape was calculated bur the finite element analysis and it was suggested that the change of beam shape could be the design variable in flexible keel design. The simulation process was systematically designed by using orthogonal array table in order to design the flexible keel structure which could store the more recoverable strain energy. finite element analysis was carried but according to the design of simulations by using the finite element program ABAQUS and the flexible keel structure of the energy-storage prosthetic foot was obtained from the analysis of variance(ANOVA). The dynamic simulation model of the prosthetic walking using the flexible keel structure was made and the dynamic analysis was carried but during one walk cycle. Based on the above results, an effective design process was presented for the development of the prosthetic fool system.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.22 no.5 s.170
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• pp.197-204
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• 2005

In this study, ground reaction force(GRF), absolute symmetry index(ASI) and coefficient of variation(CV) of fixed, single-axis and multi-axis prosthetic ankle assemblies were investigated to show the biomechanical evaluation for above knee amputees. In the experiments, 37 normal male volunteers, two male and two female AK amputees were tested with fixed, single-axis and multi-axis prosthetic ankle assembly. A gait analysis was carried out to derive the ratio of GRF to weight as the percentage of total stance phase for ten points. The results showed that fixed-axis ankle was superior to the other two ankle assemblies for the characteristic of forwarding and breaking forces. Multi-axis ankle was relatively superior to the other two ankle assemblies for gait balancing and movement of the center for mass. single-axis ankle was relatively superior to the other two ankle assemblies for CV and ASI of GRF.

• Journal of Korean Physical Therapy Science
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.367-375
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• 2000

The purpose of this study is to announce the present condition, walking training, and adaptable training of a limb amputated patient. The study is a successful report of the limb amputated patient through the medical treatment of the physical therapy. A cause of the limb amputated patient, a truck driver, was that the patient was hit by a train when the driver alight from the truck. Then, the driver was surgical operated on left AK (Above Knee) amputation and left AE (Above Elbow) amputation by orthopedics at the Young Dong Severance Hospital on Dec.7, 1996. Two weeks after the operation (Dec., 22, 1996), the patient was trained at the Yonsei Medical Center Physical Therapy Hospital for the walking and temper adjust training. It was possible to do a flat surface walking and a slope surface walking without helping due to the patients optimistic personal character and motivation. However, the patient struggled to a dull surface walking and his weak endurance. the patient has several problems when the patient wears artificial legs and hands, fears on fall down, and mentally worries on noise when he walks. It is necessary to approach for this problems by many fields of the helpers, such as Rehabilitation medical doctor, physical therapist, occupational therpist, artificial limbs makers, psychologists, and etc. Therefore, in order for recovering from the amputated parts function after the surgical operation, more approved reports have to be for the amputated patients due to increasing traffic accidents, industrial disaster, cancer, diabetes, obstacles of the peripheral nervous system, and etc.