Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Victor Prost

Amos Greene Winter, V

Amos G Winter, V

Kathryn Michelle Olesnavage

Daniel Scott Dorsch

Sahil Rajesh Shah

Zackary Ryan Eubanks

Daria Bondarchuk

Paige L Reiter

Yu Hua

A passive prosthetic foot enables a below-knee amputee to walk with near able-body walking motions. The prosthetic foot includes a resilient heel that enables the heel to strike a walking surface more softly than in the prior art and more accurately transition the leg from swing phase to stance phase. The prosthetic foot is modeled generally as a wide B&#xe9;zier curve, and the foot is characterized according to a set of at least 12 variables, including h, C1d, C2x, C2y, C2d, C3x, C3y, C3d, C4x, C4d, C5d and C6d, where C3y is heel size, C4x is heel geometry and C6d is curve intersection location. The variables are optimized to minimize a difference between a normal lower leg trajectory during gait and a modeled trajectory that includes the prosthetic foot.

Shape optimization for prosthetic feet

A prosthesis, including a prosthetic foot, a prosthetic talocrural joint, a prosthetic ankle pivotally coupled to the prosthetic foot and a four-area bending beam. The four-area bending beam includes a U-shaped or other spring. One end of the spring is mechanically coupled via two of the four areas to the prosthetic foot. The other end of the spring is mechanically coupled via the other two areas to the prosthetic ankle. The spring resiliently resists pivoting of the prosthetic ankle about the prosthetic talocrural joint. The four-area bending beam exhibits an at least approximately constant moment along its length to maximize strain energy density, storing about four times as much elastic energy as a comparable cantilevered beam, thereby providing high stiffness and high range of motion to the ankle. The spring is modular, being easily replaced with another spring exhibiting a different stiffness, ex., to tailor the prosthesis to a user.

Spring design for prosthetic applications

An apparatus includes a drive shaft, a transmission, a motor shaft, and an engine shaft. The drive shaft includes several drive gears and is used to transmit power to a wheel of a vehicle. The transmission includes a first transmission subassembly and a second transmission subassembly, each subassembly having a transmission shaft, an input gear, and several output gears. Each transmission shaft includes a shifting element to select an output gear. Each transmission subassembly transmits power to the drive shaft when the shifting element of each respective subassembly is engaged. The motor shaft is coupled to a motor and is also directly coupled to the first transmission subassembly via a first motor gear. The motor shaft is also coupled to the engine shaft via a second motor gear. The engine shaft includes several engine gears to couple the engine shaft to the first and second transmission subassemblies.

Dual-shaft clutchless hybrid transmission

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Saint Didier, France

Victor Prost