A research on EMG signal and plantar pressure information for AK prosthetic control

Abstract

With the development of prosthetics, the performance of AK (above-knee) prosthesis is highly required by the above-knee amputees. In the practical applications, there are many problems with the traditional AK prosthesis, the foremost one of which is that it has no variable speed and natural gait. In order to solve these problems, a method which based on EMG signal and plantar pressure information for gait analyzing and recognizing is proposed. With this method, the gait cycle could be effectively divided into four phases and the speed levels could be distinguished accurately. At the same time, the real-time and accuracy was greatly improved comparing with the control effect based on a single source. To control the AK prosthesis with this method can allow the AK amputees a more stable and natural gait when walking at variable speeds. © 2008 Springer-Verlag.