A design methodology for structural and control systems of a prosthetic leg

A design methodology is proposed to optimize a prosthetic leg considering the structural and control aspects. Previous studies mainly focused on each of a structural design problem or a control problem. The structural design variables of a prosthetic leg are determined in a structural design problem while the trajectory tracking based on the human gait cycle is found to be a control problem. The two problems have been separately solved. However, they should be simultaneously considered to obtain a better design. Then the problem would be nonlinear dynamic response optimization of structural and control systems. An optimization method was recently developed for a linear system of structural and control design problems using the equivalent static loads (ESLs). In this study, a design methodology for the prosthetic leg is presented by expanding the equivalent static loads method (ESLM) to nonlinear dynamic systems. A simple example is solved to validate the proposed methodology, and then a prosthetic leg is optimized to reduce the weight and energy consumption.