Workshop: How not to walk symmetrically with a prosthetic leg

A major concern of transfemoral (TF) amputees is that their gait reveals the use of a prosthetic leg. In this interactive workshop, we discuss and demonstrate the relations between the characteristical profiles of the Center of Mass (CoM), the Center of Pressure (CoP), and the Ground Reaction Forces (GRF) during TF gait initiation, termination and prosthetic leg clearance.

Our hypotheses are: 1) shortage of active force and control in the prosthetic leg is compensated with the sound leg; 2) the absence of active ankle function results in relatively small motions of the CoP under the prosthetic leg compared to the CoP under the sound leg, complicating gait initiation and termination with the prosthetic leg; 3) the location of the point of application of the GRF under the prosthetic foot effects the foot clearance during swing phase; and 4) applied hip torques and inertial properties effect clearance during swing phase.We use a knee walker prosthetic leg for able-bodied subjects to test our hypotheses.