Human Gait Cycle Analysis Using an Adapted Mechanical Prosthesis

The knee is a joint that acts in the process of locomotion of the human being. When a person, for some reason, loses this joint starts a slow and expensive process of rehabilitation for the reintegration of this person in society. With this mindset, this project aimed to compare normal gait and gait using an adapted mechanical knee prosthesis, in order to list parameters that in the future a dynamic control system can be used to act on a low cost knee prosthesis, capable of facilitating the process of rehabilitation, making it less traumatic. The tests were performed in healthy people using a device that had two accelerometers and two channels of electromyographic signal acquisition. After the tests, the data were analyzed and the following conclusions were observed: (a) gait with the prosthesis has a higher balance phase and is tiring and slow when compared to normal gait, and (b) there is the possibility of development of a control system for electronic knee prostheses using inertial sensors and electromyography only.