Glenn Klute, Ph.D.
VA Center of Excellence for Limb Loss Prevention and Prosthetic
Engineering
"Bio-mimetic Lower Limbs for the Amputee"
ABSTRACT
Many lower limb amputees exhibit lack of endurance, non-symmetrical
gait,
and are exposed to residual limb tissue injury while walking or running
with
the aid of a prosthetic limb. Simply put, artificial limbs are
poor
substitutes for the real thing.
Our team of engineers and graduate students are working with physicians,
prosthetists, and patients to develop the bio-mimetic prosthetic limbs
of
the future. This overview of our research projects will include
our
approaches to designing effective limb shock-absorbers, novel actuators
for
generating propulsive forces during gait, and using heat transfer
models to
design more comfortable prosthetic sockets. Examples of
prosthetic feet,
pylons, sockets and knees will be available for comparison.