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Battery-Operated Foot Recycles Energy Spent While Walking

by Caleb Johnson on February 18, 2010 at 12:30 PM


Imagine if you had to walk to work on a prosthetic foot. It's a sobering reality, but many Americans do it every day. Dragging around such a limb takes a lot of effort, but a new prototype could make it easier by recycling the energy a wearer would typically expend between steps.

According to Inhabitat, when walking, we spend most of our energy transitioning from one foot to the other; 23-percent gets wasted when walking on a natural foot. The ankle's job is to restore this energy before we push off the ground again. But, as you know, an amputee doesn't have an ankle. So this prototype takes what would be wasted energy and recycles it back into a small battery (containing a single watt of electricity) that then increases push-off power. The technology itself isn't revolutionary, but the size and weight of the prototype sets it apart. Other prosthetic feet that enhance push-off power use large, heavy motors and batteries, making it more difficult for the user to walk. But not this device.

This artificial foot is being tested at the Seattle Veterans Affairs Medical Center, but there's sadly no word on when it will hit the streets (or, rather, your feet, which will then hit the streets). [From: Inhabitat]

Tags: artificiallimbs, battery, energy, feet, prosthetic, recycling, walking

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