Page 277 - Handbook of Biomechatronics

Lower-Limb Prosthetics 271

Fig. 20 Schematic of bionic dancing prosthesis. Bionic ankle prosthesis shown (left)
with major components highlighted (right). Note the location of the battery in the distal
prosthetic socket. (From Rouse, E.J., Villagaray-Carski, N.C., Emerson, R.W., Herr, H.M.
(2015). Design and testing of a bionic dancing prosthesis. PLoS One, 10(8), e0135148.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0135148.)

biomechatronic ankle was patented under US2007/0043449 A1 (Herr et al.,
2007)(Fig. 20).
BIOM was sold by the Iwalk, Inc. which later became BionX Medical
Technologies, Inc. The Rheo knee was also sold by the Iwalk, Inc. and
€
licensed to Ossur. BionX Medical Technologies, Inc. was acquired by
Ottobock in March 2017 for $77M.

6.4.2 New Active Leg (Vanderbilt)
There has been a recent trend to develop active lower-limb prostheses, espe-
cially ankles that will store and/or dissipate energy, and also generate net
power during a gait cycle. Examples of these devices are the new leg devel-
oped by Varol et al. (2010) and Spanias et al. (2018, 2016b). As stated in
Varol et al. (2010), the present transfemoral prostheses can store or dissipate
energy but cannot generate net power over a gait cycle. Transfemoral ampu-
tees could expend up to 60% more metabolic energy than able-bodied
ambulators (Waters et al., 1976). It has also been stated by Hansen et al.
(2004) that there is net power generation by the ankle at speeds higher than
1.2m/s. It is, therefore, justified to develop net power generation prosthesis,
since it can improve the metabolic cost of amputee ambulation especially at
higher walking speeds. Fig. 21 shows the Vanderbilt prosthesis, which