ORTHOCARE INNOVATIONS LLC — Department of Health and Human Services SBIR Phase I: DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Power absorption and generation at the ankle is crit
ORTHOCARE INNOVATIONS LLC — SBIR Phase I award from Department of Health and Human Services.
- Amount
- $220,054
- Agency
- Department of Health and Human Services · National Institutes of Health
- Program / Phase
- SBIR · Phase I
- Solicitation
- PA13-234
- NAICS
- —
- Place of performance
- WA
- Period
- —
Description
DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Power absorption and generation at the ankle is critical to gait efficiency, joint health, and safety. For amputees, it's also an important factor n residual limb health. Recently, research and commercial efforts haveresulted in powered foot-ankle systems, which provide powered- plantarflexion electromechanically, reduce metabolic costs of walking, and show reductions in pathological loading of the contralateral limb. However, these devices are complex, expensive, heavy, and physically large - all factors which limit widespread adoption. The objective of the energy-harvesting mesofluidic impulse prosthesis (e-MIP) is to create an inexpensive, lightweight foot-ankle system which doesn't require a net energy input for powered plantarflexion and swing-phase dorsiflexion. The energy density and bandwidth of high pressure, meso-scale hydraulics enables an ankle that can seamlessly harvest the energy normally dissipated in gait; store it in fluid-accumulators; and reapply