Open-source prosthesis

The first open source bionic leg has been created

Stepan Ikaev, Hi-tech+

Engineers from the University of Michigan's Neurobionics Laboratory have developed the first open-source prosthesis. The new approach reduced the weight of the prosthesis to 4 kg and radically reduced the cost – up to 10-30 thousand dollars instead of $ 100 thousand, for which commercial products with a similar set of capabilities are offered, according to a press release from New grant to expand open source control software for an intuitive robotic prosthetic leg. The design uses light engines with high torque, originally developed for drones – they make walking easier and leave room for additional batteries.

With the advent of new technologies and with the development of bionic prosthetics, not only the capabilities of disabled people are growing, but also the needs of engineers for reliable and safe control systems. At this point, a key snag appears – every company, startup or enthusiastic engineer develops unique software that is suitable for only one model of prosthesis, which increases the cost and slows down the development process. The "Open Source Leg" (OSL) system is designed to solve this problem.

As the representatives of the project explain, OSL is a reliable and relatively inexpensive system that is easy to produce, assemble and control. All the components of the software required for a bionic leg are published on the official OSL website, so it is not necessary to design a leg from scratch to study and manufacture a prosthesis.

"Ultimately, the ubiquitous availability of a prosthesis will help facilitate comparison between management strategies and optimize the application areas of highly functional robotic prosthetic legs," the engineers explain.

At the moment, the developers have set themselves three goals. The first is to determine the electromechanical design of an inexpensive, but high–performance knee and ankle system. The second is to understand how individual prosthetic management strategies can be combined to optimize the system to work in real conditions. And the last goal is to evaluate the advantages of controllers during experiments with people with disabilities and, accordingly, to determine the effectiveness of the "Open Source Leg".

The implementation of the tasks does not require a strict chronological order, and part of the research has already been carried out. The Neurobiotics Laboratory conducted clinical trials on three volunteers with above-the-knee amputation who had already tested other prosthetic legs. During a series of experiments, patients successfully achieved the goals set by physiotherapists, and noted that the system works much smoother and more responsive than analogues.

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