ANN ARBOR, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – Researchers at the University of Michigan received a $3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health for a program designed to help make robot leg use a more seamless transition for users. 

How will this grant help?

Various movements such as standing after sitting, walking after standing, and walking up and down stairs present challenging transitions for robotic prosthetic limbs and users. Associate professor of robotics at UM, Robert Gregg, described how the experience of robotic prosthetic legs is unique to each person. 

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“Every person has different parameters because every person walks differently,” Gregg said in a statement. “And that resulted in very, very cumbersome clinical deployment.”

The R01 grant began in 2018, Gregg’s research has expanded to attempt to address numerous situations including: inclines, stairs, sitting to standing, and standing to walking. There can also be pain for the user where the limb meets the socket for some limbs. 

“The robot has very strong motors, and so, if you’re controlling the position and it’s somehow incompatible with the environment, it can feel very rigid and jarring,” he said. 

The research is a team effort.

Gregg has since teamed up with Elliot Rouse, an associate professor of robotics and mechanical engineering to help study the way in which legs should behave across activities. 

“We obtain the measurements for determining the biomechanical properties of the leg using an exoskeleton,” said Rouse, associate professor of robotics and mechanical engineering, and co-investigator on the project. “The exoskeleton mostly provides no assistance but occasionally applies a quick perturbation that displaces the limb. From these measurements, we can determine the mechanical impedance, including properties like stiffness, viscosity and inertia.”

They’re following a solid model.

Going forward, Gregg’s team will use a robotic leg built in house with motors to power the ankle and knee before comparing it to the Ossür’s Power Knee prosthetic leg.  If testing goes well, they will use the new algorithm to start helping people. 

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Ossür is an Iceland based prosthetic limb maker which has promoted active powered knee technology for more than a decade. The company shared with customers some of the goals and challenges with prosthetic legs, reminding them that perseverance and practice will help especially after a major surgery. 

“When learning to walk on a prosthesis, the goal is to walk with a natural walking pattern or “gait,” which will expend less energy,” the company said in a statement. “The higher the level of your amputation, the more difficult it may be to master your prosthesis. With less bone and fewer muscles remaining, other body parts need to compensate to move your limb and prosthetic device.” 

Last spring, the company announced the launch of the new power knee technology.

“No other knee thinks, acts or behaves remotely like the new, next-generation POWER KNEE,” said Jon Sigurdsson, former President and CEO of Össur. “While other microprocessor knees are “passive” in nature, we have always considered the restoration of power – which is fundamental to the biomechanical systems that move all human bodies – to be a critical function that was lacking in other prosthetic solutions for amputees. The POWER KNEE delivers on that promise and represents an extraordinary milestone in mobility for people with limb loss and limb difference.”

This new R01 grant represents a fraction of the school’s $777 million in award dollars for Fiscal Year 2023. The university also experienced a 40% increase in publications since FY2022. 

See here for a full copy of the University of Michigan’s Medical School annual 2023 research report.