Lightweight Energy-Storing Prosthesis Takes First Steps
From: Orthotics and Prosthetics Almanac - 07/2007 - page 20

A team of researchers at Arizona State University and Walter Reed Army
Medical Center in Washington, DC are working on a below-knee prosthesis with
energy-storing springs and a lightweight motor that could enable amputees to
expend less energy while walking.  

The device, nicknamed SPARKy for Spring Ankle with Regenerative Kinetics,
mimics the natural human gait cycle by storing and releasing energy during
the stance phase. A spring breaks the "fall" that happens at the beginning of
the gait cycle and stores energy as the leg rolls over the ankle during the
stance phase, similar to the function of the Achilles tendon.  

This "robotic tendon" stores enough energy that the size of the motor
assisting it has been reduced to a 2-pound system. 

"We expect this device to revolutionize prosthetics," says Joseph Hitt, one
of the doctoral students involved in the project.  

The SPARKy team hopes to demonstrate the first phase of the robotic tendon in
December, and complete the final device in 2009.  

For more information, visit:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/05/070501151726.htm

Links:
Scientists Create Prosthesis of the Future
http://www.sciencenewsden.com/2007/scientistscreateprosthesisofthefuture.shtml
http://www.poly.asu.edu/news/2007/04/30/
http://www.asu.edu/news/stories/200705/20070514_new_prothesis.htm