摘要 |
A knee unit for an above-knee prosthetic leg includes a piston arrangement, a valve arrangement and a bladder arrangement for achieving swing and stance control of the prosthetic leg. For swing control the piston arrangement displaces a fluid through the valve arrangement to compress the bladder arrangement for storing the energy required to drive an extension cycle of the prosthetic leg and to provide bias and flexion resistance for the knee unit. For stance control the valve arrangement is such that when weight is applied to the heel of a prosthetic foot at various stages of the gait cycle of the prosthetic leg, the knee unit is permitted to flex or is prevented from flexing via compression of the bladder to provide stability during the various phases of the gait cycle.
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