Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Bionx Medical Technologies, Inc.

Otto Bock Healthcare Gmbh

Iwalk, Inc.

Other

Bionic Skins LLC

Dephy, Inc.

Hugh Miller Herr

Richard James Casler, Jr

Zhixiu Han

Christopher Eric Barnhart

Jeff Anthony Weber

Gill A Pratt

Rick Casler

Joaquin Blaya

Daniel Joseph Paluska

Kwok Wai Samuel Au

Peter Dilworth

Christopher Guy Williams

Lee Harris Magnusson

Michael Frederick Eilenberg

Gary Girzon

Bruce Wayne Deffenbaugh

Andreas G Hofmann

Ken Endo

Hartmut Geyer

Matthew J Carty

Timothy Mark Dalrymple

Seth S Kessler

Kristin Size

Gregory Kent Thompson

Robert W Spaller

Rustem I Gamow

Christopher M Nook

Benjamin B Aisen

Richard J Casler

Alexander S Margolin

Katherine Wei Song

David W Murray

Luke M Mooney

Jean-François Duval

Michael Brian Wittig

Kenneth Alan Pasch

David A Garlow

Conor James Walsh

Brian W Anthony

Pavitra Krishnaswamy

Matthew Eli Carney

Anthony Zorzos

Jared Markowitz

Elliott J Rouse

Marko B Popovic

Canan Dagdeviren

Olaf Bleck

David Adams Garlow

Matthew T Kowalczyk

Andrew Marecki

Ronald R Riso

Ari Wilkenfeld

Jing Wang

Ernesto C Martinez-Villalpando

Benjamin Maimon

Tyler Clites

David M Sengeh

Jiun-Yih Kuan

Samuel Au

Arthur Joseph Petron

Christopher Charles Williams

Cameron Taylor

William Grand

Xiang Zhang

Seong Ho Yeon

Barry M Gosthnian

Matthew Lawrence Handford

Daniel Visan Levine

Jonathan Randall Fincke

Shriya Sruthi Srinivasan

Emily Ann Rogers

Lucy Wei Du

Andre Seyfarth

Madeleine Rose Abromowitz

Adrienne Bolger

Jennifer T McCarthy

Andrew Valiente

Micha Feigin-Almon

Charles E Rohrs

Grant Elliott

Hazel Briner

Kenneth A Pasch

Matthew Thomas Kowalczyk

Kristin Jugenheimer Size

Robert William Spaller

David Wayne Murray

Dana Solav

Xingbang Yang

Aaron Jaeger

German A Prieto-Gomez

Zixi Liu

Kevin Mattheus Moerman

Stephanie Lai Ku

Rebecca Steinmeyer

Bryan James Ranger

At least partial function of a human limb is restored by surgically removing at least a portion of an injured or diseased human limb from a surgical site of an individual and transplanting a selected muscle into the remaining biological body of the individual, followed by contacting the transplanted selected muscle, or an associated nerve, with an electrode, to thereby control a device, such as a prosthetic limb, linked to the electrode. Simulating proprioceptive sensory feedback from a device includes mechanically linking at least one pair of agonist and antagonist muscles, wherein a nerve innervates each muscle, and supporting each pair with a support, whereby contraction of the agonist muscle of each pair will cause extension of the paired antagonist muscle. An electrode is implanted in a muscle of each pair and electrically connected to a motor controller of the device, thereby simulating proprioceptive sensory feedback from the device.

Peripheral neural interface via nerve regeneration to distal tissues

Hybrid terrain-adaptive lower-extremity apparatus and methods that perform in a variety of different situations by detecting the terrain that is being traversed, and adapting to the detected terrain. In some embodiments, the ability to control the apparatus for each of these situations builds upon five basic capabilities: (1) determining the activity being performed; (2) dynamically controlling the characteristics of the apparatus based on the activity that is being performed; (3) dynamically driving the apparatus based on the activity that is being performed; (4) determining terrain texture irregularities (e.g., how sticky is the terrain, how slippery is the terrain, is the terrain coarse or smooth, does the terrain have any obstructions, such as rocks) and (5) a mechanical design of the apparatus that can respond to the dynamic control and dynamic drive.

Hybrid terrain-adaptive lower-extremity systems

The system includes an instrument for determining the anatomical, biomechanical, and physiological properties of a body segment that includes one or more force sensitive probes is provided. A human operator actuates one or more force sensitive probes, wherein the force sensitive probes are positioned at the surface of the body segment. The operator pushes on the force sensitive probes with varying force applied on the body segment to measure tissue deflection forces. The instrument may include one or more of gyroscopes, accelerometers, and magnetometers capable of measuring changes in tissue deflection caused by the force sensitive probes relative to a grounded reference frame in 3-D space, wherein the tissue deflection force data and the change in tissue deflection data are used to compute segment tissue viscoelastic properties. The instrument may also be untethered or wireless.

Mechanisms and methods for the design and fabrication of a mechanical interface between a wearable device and a human body segment

A physiological feature of a subject is monitored by implanting a plurality of targets, such as magnets, and detecting at least one change in a physical property of the targets, followed by modifying a physiological feature of the subject in response to a change of state detected by the change in physical property detected in the targets. Cutaneous sensory feedback and proprioceptive feedback in a subject, as well as selective stimulation of axons or nerve fascicles of a neuron of a subject are provided.

Method for neuromechanical and neuroelectromagnetic mitigation of limb pathology

An ankle-foot prosthesis comprises a foot structure having a foot keel leaf spring, a heel leaf spring, and an upper J leaf spring above the keel leaf spring. An ankle bearing block is mounted to the keel leaf spring and a shank shell is mounted to the ankle bearing block. A shank interface mounts to the shank shell. A processor controlled active element extends along an axis between the shank shell and the upper leaf-spring.

Computer-controlled ankle-foot prosthesis with series J-spring actuation

A mechanical interface connecting a biological body segment, such as a limb, portion of a limb or other body segment, to a wearable device such as a prosthetic, orthotic or exoskeletal device, is fabricated by quantitatively mapping a characterized representation of the body segment to form a digital representation of the mechanical interface shape and mechanical interface impedance. The mechanical interface includes a continuous socket defining a contoured inside surface and a contoured outside surface, and includes a material having an intrinsic impedance that varies through the material, so that the intrinsic impedance varies along the contoured inside surface.

Variable impedance mechanical interface

An electromyography (EMG) sensor for a wearable device, such as a prosthetic device attachable to a residual limb, includes a flexible substrate comprising an elongated portion and an electrode portion. At least two electrodes are disposed at a surface of the electrode portion of the flexible substrate, and leads from the at least two electrodes extend through the elongated portion of the flexible substrate.

Electromyography sensor

A time-dependent decay behavior is incorporated into one or more joint actuator control parameters during operation of a lower-extremity, prosthetic, orthotic or exoskeleton device. These parameters may include joint equilibrium, joint impedance (e.g., stiffness, damping) and/or joint torque components (e.g., gain, exponent). The decay behavior may be exponential, linear, piecewise, or may conform to any other suitable function. Embodiments presented herein are used in a control system that emulates biological muscle-tendon reflex response providing for Reflex Parameter Modulation a natural walking experience. Further, joint impedance may depend on an angular rate of the joint. Such a relationship between angular rate and joint impedance may assist a wearer in carrying out certain activities, such as standing up and ascending a ladder.

Prosthetic, orthotic or exoskeleton device

Knee orthoses or prostheses can be used to automatically, when appropriate, initiate a stand-up sequence based on the position of a person's knee with respect to the person's ankle while the person is in a seated position. When the knee is moved to a position that is forward of the ankle, at least one actuator of the orthosis or prosthesis is actuated to help raise the person from the seated position to a standing position.

Implementing a stand-up sequence using a lower-extremity prosthesis or orthosis

Hybrid terrain&#x2014;adaptive lower-extremity systems

A nerve in a mammal is optogenetically transduced, wherein the nerve is susceptible to stimulus by selective application of transdermal light, and a light source is applied to dermis of the mammal at or proximate to the optogenetically transduced nerve, to thereby stimulate the nerve. A wearable device for optogenetic motor control and sensation restoration of a mammal includes a wearable support, a power source at the wearable support, a controller at the wearable support and in electrical communication with a power source, and a transdermal light source coupled to the controller.

Transdermal optogenetic peripheral nerve stimulation

Artificial limbs and joints that behave like biological limbs and joints employ a synthetic actuator which consumes negligible power when exerting zero force, consumes negligible power when outputting force at constant length (isometric) and while performing dissipative, nonconservative work, is capable of independently engaging flexion and extension tendon-like, series springs, is capable of independently varying joint position and stiffness, and exploits series elasticity for mechanical power amplification.

Artificial joints using agonist-antagonist actuators

A powered device augments a joint function of a human during a gait cycle using a powered actuator that supplies an augmentation torque, an impedance, or both to a joint. A controller estimates terrain slope and modulates the augmentation torque and the impedance according to a phase of the gait cycle and the estimated terrain slope to provide at least a biomimetic response. The controller may also modulate a joint equilibrium. Accordingly, the device is capable of normalizing or augmenting human biomechanical function, responsive to a wearer's activity, regardless of speed and terrain, and can be used, for example, as a knee orthosis, prosthesis, or exoskeleton.

Terrain adaptive powered joint orthosis

In a powered actuator for supplying torque, joint equilibrium, and/or impedance to a joint, a motor is directly coupled to a low-reduction ratio transmission, e.g., a transmission having a gear ratio less than about 80 to 1. The motor has a low dissipation constant, e.g., less than about 50 W/(Nm). The transmission is serially connected to an elastic element that is also coupled to the joint, thereby supplying torque, joint equilibrium, and/or impedance to the joint while minimizing the power consumption and/or acoustic noise of the actuator.

Biomimetic joint actuators

A prosthetic device includes a frame defining an output axis, a cantilever beam spring attached to the frame, a moment arm attached to the spring, and a rigid output arm coupled to the frame and rotatable about the output axis. A connector assembly is configured to apply a moment to the cantilever beam spring via the moment arm while applying a torque about the output axis via the output arm. An ankle-foot device includes foot and ankle members connected for two-degree of freedom movement relative to one another, allowing for rotation about an ankle axis and rotation about a subtalar axis. Two linear actuators, each coupled to corresponding series elastic element, link the foot and ankle members. Driving the actuators in the same direction causes rotation about the ankle axis and driving the actuators in opposing directions causes rotation about the subtalar axis. A processor receives sensory information from a sensor and drives the actuators to control an equilibrium position of the series elastic elements. A rotary actuator for a prosthetic device includes a housing frame, a motor mounted within the housing frame, and a cycloidal drive coupled to the motor within the housing frame. A torsion shaft can extend through the actuator to an output and provide a series elastic element.

Neural efferent and afferent control of spring equilibrium, damping, and power in backdrivable and non-backdrivable series-elastic actuators comprising variable series stiffness mechanisms

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Somerville, MA, United States of America

Hugh Miller Herr