Development of knee joint for a motor-actuated knee prosthesis / Mohd Faiz Mispan

Mohd Faiz, Mispan (2014) Development of knee joint for a motor-actuated knee prosthesis / Mohd Faiz Mispan. Masters thesis, University of Malaya.

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Abstract

A well-designed lower limb prosthesis is required in order to allow an amputee to return to healthy locomotion. A complete set of the prosthesis for transfemoral amputee includes a socket which is custom fit to the residual limb, a prosthetic knee unit, a shank connecting the knee unit to a prosthetic ankle, and a prosthetic foot. The purpose of this project is to improve the initial design of a microcontroller-based transfemoral prosthesis which was unable to reach the designated rotational speed intended for a functional use, and had low aesthetic value. The improvement focuses on designing a new mechanism on the knee unit by using a pre-existed motor, a socket, and the prosthetic foot available from the previous design. This includes mimicking the normal limb function and to enhance the range of motion of this knee prosthesis. For aesthetic reason, a new cover of the shank will be designed. There are a few criteria that need to be fulfilled at the end of this project such as the new proposed knee unit should be able to bend up to 120O and has enough strength to withstand the amputee’s body weight. A computer aided design (CAD) software known as SolidWorks 2013 was used to design every single component of the knee unit and the shank cover. Then, each component will be assembled and the mechanism of the knee unit will be simulated in order to visualize the expected motion or movement of this new knee prosthesis. The materials used was selected by considering the cost and the properties of that material. Finite element analysis (FEA) was performed and the results were evaluated to determine if the proposed prosthesis can withstand certain loads. In the end, all results were discussed and evaluated to check if the design has fulfilled the goals of this project. 2

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