The 2-DOF mechanical impedance of the human ankle during poses of the stance phase

Abstract The mechanical impedance of the human ankle is vital for the human interactions with the environment for many activities of daily living (ADL), and its accurate characterization is necessary for the development of ankle-foot prostheses that mimic the unimpaired ankle behavior. This work reports the methods and the results of the ankle impedance identification of healthy subjects standing in poses resembling stages of the gait cycle. The resulting impedance was similar to functional experiments where the subjects are walking. Finally, to validate the proposed method, artificial subjects were numerically simulated, and their impedance was evaluated, to assess the accuracy of the proposed method.