Kinematic analysis of polycentric artificial knee joint

Abstract

In this survey, kinematic analysis of a poly-centric knee joint which is used widely for the patients having trans-femoral amputation are performed for the stance phase of the walking procedure. The main approach of the study is to design a poly-centric knee mechanism which can be able to realize the trajectory of a single axis knee joint and do kinematic analysis of this poly-centric mechanism. For this purpose, knee joint positions and angular changes in the knee joint are obtained for a single axis knee mechanism in order to satisfy the natural walking conditions of hip joint and artificial foot joint at the stance leg phase of walking. All the needed parameters for each axis of a poly-centric knee mechanism are calculated according to these data found from single-axis knee mechanism. Poly-centric mechanism used in the analyses is designed as a classical four-bar mechanism. By using this knee joint, it is aimed to make a positive effect to the walking stability of the amputee.