Patent ID: 9603724
Date: 2017-03-28
CPC Classifications: A61F

Claim:
1. A method for placing an artificial foot connected to a prosthetic or robotic limb on to a target point, wherein the method comprises: providing the prosthetic or robotic limb with a rotatable artificial hip joint, a rotatable artificial knee joint, an artificial thigh having length (l providing a hip torque actuator coupled to the rotatable artificial hip joint, and a knee torque actuator coupled the rotatable artificial knee joint; providing a controller in communication with: i. a rotatable artificial hip joint sensor to measure a current hip rotation angle (φ inputting into the controller one or more parameters from the group consisting of a target leg angle (α wherein the controller executes the following steps of the method: a. continuously measuring the current hip rotation angle (φ b. continuously determining a current leg angle velocity ({dot over (α)}) and a current leg angle (α) based on the current hip rotation angle (φ c. calculating the adjustable leg length (l) based on the current knee rotation angle (φ d. applying a first torque or no torque to the rotatable artificial knee joint and/or a first torque or no torque to the rotatable artificial hip joint until the adjustable leg length (l) is equal to or less than the leg clearance length (l e. applying a second torque or no torque to the rotatable artificial knee joint and/or a second torque to the rotatable artificial hip joint until a threshold leg angle α f. applying a third torque or no torque to the rotatable artificial knee joint and/or a third torque or no torque to the rotatable artificial hip joint until the current leg angle velocity ({dot over (α)}) equal to or greater than zero; and g. applying a fourth torque or no torque to the rotatable artificial knee joint and/or a fourth torque or no torque the rotatable artificial hip joint until the artificial foot contacts the target point, whereby motion of the rotatable artificial hip joint and the rotatable artificial knee joint are determined without enforcing reference trajectories of the rotatable artificial hip joint and the rotatable artificial knee joint.