Andrea Brandt's paper presented at EMBC 2017, JeJu Korea

Andrea Brandt, Graduate Student in Dr. Helen Huang’s lab, paper titled "Does the Impedance of Above-knee Powered Prostheses Need to be Adjusted for Load-carrying Conditions?*”was presented at EBMC 2017 in JeJu KOREA

Abstract— Powered knee prostheses provide substantial advantages for amputees compared to traditional passive devices during basic walking tasks (i.e. level-ground, stairs, ramps), but the impedance control parameters are fixed. For environments that differ from the well-controlled setting of the clinic, amputees must compensate their gait patterns because fixed control parameters ideal for walking on level ground in the clinic do not meet real-life task demands. Load carriage is one instance where fixed control parameters may lead to undesired gait patterns and potentially result in injury. To evaluate the importance of impedance control parameters for different walking tasks, we tested one above-knee amputee walking using an experimental powered prosthesis under four walking conditions. The amputee walked with and without added mass with both load-specific and non-specific impedance control parameters. The load-specific parameters significantly reduced the amputee’s intact-leg compensations, asymmetry, and perceived exertion compared to the non-specific control parameters. Powered lower limb prostheses that modulate impedance control parameters for load-carrying tasks may improve the gait performance, safety, and comfort of amputees

The 39th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC’17), in conjunction with International Biomedical Engineering Conference of KOSOMBE, will be held at International Convention Center (ICC), Jeju Island, Korea from July 11 to 15, 2017. This year’s conference theme: “Smarter Technology for a Healthier World” will cover diverse topics of cutting-edge research in biomedical engineering, healthcare technology R&D, translational clinical research, technology transfer and entrepreneurship, and biomedical engineering education