Biologically inspired CPG based above knee active prosthesis

The objective of the work presented here is to develop a low cost active knee prosthetic devices as real time embedded system which utilizes the available biological motor control circuit properly integrated with a Central Pattern Generator (CPG) aided control scheme. The approach is completely different from the existing Active Prosthetic devices, designed primarily as stand alone systems utilizing multiple sensors and embedded rigid control schemes. First we analyzed a fuzzy logic based methodology for offering suitable gait for an amputee, followed by formulating a suitable algorithm for designing a CPG, based on Rayleigh's oscillator. Using the oscillator we presented a number of simulation results which showed the behavior of knee angles and hip angles and determined the stable limit cycles of the network, and compared them with the captured gaits of an individual. Subsequently, we presented a methodology about how to use CPG outputs for calculating the damping profile for controlling a prosthetic device called AMAL (Adaptive Modular Active Leg). ©2008 IEEE.