A test platform design for testing knee prostheses

Abstract

This study presents an above-knee prosthesis test platform for designing and testing knee prosthesis and shares various kinematic analysis results obtained from this system. The main goal for developing such test platform is to generate the periodic move of above knee activity by using basic control units and electro-mechanic units. This platform helps us to assess the design outcomes of the prosthesis so that test studies become less dependent to human trials. Above-knee prosthesis test platform performance tests were conducted with both an image based motion measurement system and a direct type motion measurement system and analysis results were evaluated for assessing to what extent the natural periodic movement of the hip was approximated with designed electromechanical simulator. This platform giving approximated gait motions is designed to cover long term testing stages of the above knee prostheses. In the last part, the results obtained from the image and sensor based measurement systems are compared for natural movement and artificial movement generated by prosthesis test platform.