Finite Element Analysis of a Six-Component Force Sensor for the Trans-Femoral Prosthesis

It is significant to detect and analyze its mechanical property for the design of the artificial knee joint, especially for the design of an osseointegrated prosthetic limb. Since normal six-component force sensors are unsuitable for detecting the mechanical property of the lower limb prosthesis, a novel sensor is presented in this paper. It can be easily fixed between the artificial knee joint and the stump of the patient to detect the load condition during walking. The mathematic model of the sensor is analyzed, and strength check, stiffness design and the linearity of the sensor were studied with FEA. Finally, the Transmission Matrix is calculated. This kind of sensor can help us to get academic foundations for the designment and the evaluation of the limb prosthesis and its performance.