LEG

About the Discipline

Climbing stairs and overcoming rough terrain with a leg prosthesis

An amputation above the knee or a congenital disorder may lead to significant challenges in mobility in everyday life. The functionality of current assistive devices does not always optimally support their users. Many prostheses do not have a motor as part of the knee joint. As a result, such prostheses cannot actively support their user when getting up from a chair or when climbing stairs. This leads to asymmetric gait and increased energy expenditure by the user. The lack of actuation means that the user cannot actively extend or bend the knee as needed, which generally leads to compensatory movements that can have negative long-term effects on the user’s health. Current devices lack the ability to provide proprioception and haptic sensory feedback from the joints or the sole of the user’s foot. In consequence, their use can be exhausting, is not very intuitive, and requires a lot of attention and training from the user.

Leg prostheses which mimic and enable the natural function of human legs have the promising potential to optimally support their users. Leg prostheses that can be controlled intuitively and allow for symmetric gait lead to better device acceptance and better health of the users.

In contrast to 2020, the competition tasks will generally include a greater level of uncertainty about the exact structure or exact arrangement of the various objects, as well as dynamic elements to which the pilots have to react. The availability of sensory feedback will be beneficial to tackling some of the tasks.