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Control system for prosthetic devices

  • US 5,480,454 A
  • Filed: 07/26/1994
  • Issued: 01/02/1996
  • Est. Priority Date: 08/31/1992
  • Status: Expired due to Fees
First Claim
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1. A control system for use with a prosthetic device, the prosthetic device comprising a plurality of moveable sub-prostheses and incorporating any implementation of harness and shoulder control hardware such that the shoulder shrug control movement associated with a moveable body part ranging from the no-shrug position of the moveable body part through the full-shrug position of the moveable body part provides control by the user to the prosthetic device, the control system comprising:

  • (a) a shoulder harness for engaging the body part and for receiving the movement from the body part,(b) a linear potentiometer for mechanically receiving the movement from said shoulder harness and for generating a linear sensing signal in consonance with the movement of the body part,(c) an attenuator potentiometer for receiving the linear sensing signal from said linear potentiometer and for scaling the linear sensing signal to be a function of the entire range of body part movement from the no-shrug position of the moveable body part through the full-shrug position of the moveable body part,(d) a bar graph driver circuit for receiving the scaled linear signal from said attenuator potentiometer and for dividing the scaled signal into a plurality of discrete command signals,(e) current driver means operatively associated with said bar graph driver circuit for receiving the discrete command signals from said bar graph driver circuit and for generating electrical drive signals, corresponding to said command signals, and(f) a solenoid/motor arrangement for receiving the drive signals from said current driver means and controlling each of said moveable sub-prosthesis of the prosthetic device by a different one of said drive signals.

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