Increased start performance with a variable stiffness sprinting prosthesis

Increased start performance with a variable stiffness sprinting prosthesis

Vletter, G.

Van der Helm, F.C.T. (mentor)
Bergsma, O.K. (mentor)

Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering

BioMechanical Engineering

2015-10-23

Amputee sprinters are hampered in their acceleration by the design of the traditional sprinting prosthesis. Contact times are increased by the constant stiffness, whilst forward lean is limited by the shape. We constructed a novel sprinting prosthesis for a 100m track sprint with the aim to achieve a more similar running pattern like able bodied sprinters during start phase, and increase the acceleration performance. An increased stiffness during the start will facilitate in immediate propulsion, while the circular shape increases the forward lean and maximizes the horizontal component of the leg force. A prototype was built and tested on a single subject, a bi-lateral transtibial Paralympic athlete. We found that the circular shape of this novel design did not provide enough stability during leg extension, rotating the center of mass (COM) instead of translating it forward. However, we now think that by increasing the contact surface area the stability will increase and powerful leg extension is possible. It is expected that with a variable stiffness sprinting prosthesis already 0.1s is gained after the first four steps following the start compared to the traditional prosthesis.

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:1083ec13-e2ae-454f-9951-e8380fb7f57a

2018-10-23

Student theses

master thesis

(c) 2015 Vletter, G.