Each year, tens of thousands of people in the United States alone lose extremities by amputation and 137,000 of those are lower-limb amputations. The U.S. counts more than 1.9 million amputees, 90 percent of whom have experienced lower-limb amputation.
Prosthetics market is expected to increase as the life expectancy of the baby boom population lengthens. Diabetes, a steadily growing disease, currently afflicts approximately 20 million Americans. It is the most frequent cause of non-traumatic lower-leg amputations. Each year, people with diabetes undergo 82,000 lower-extremity amputations. Moreover, by the year 2010, the baby boom population will reach the ages of 46 to 64, enlarging the proportion at risk of diseases causing amputation. By the year 2020, the number of amputees in need of prostheses will increase by 47 percent.
Victhom’s bionic leg is a lower-limb prosthesis for people amputated above the knee and is commercialized by Ossur under the name POWER KNEE. It is the first in the world to provide the necessary power to restore amputated lower-limb function during defined portions of locomotion.
The POWER KNEE prosthesis is motorized (battery-powered) and features a set of sensors located on the prosthesis and on the sound leg. The on-board artificial intelligence module continuously receives data from these sensors, interprets the information and sends commands to the motor of the prosthesis to generate the required trajectory that will allow the amputee to perform the current task (level ground walking, stair climbing, etc.). The system is able to anticipate all task modifications.
The BioTronix division is also pursuing work on the following generations of motorized lower-limb prostheses. We aim to restore lower-limb functionality by improving biomechanical performance of both the knee and the ankle. Control of the prosthesis through sound side sensory control will be pushed a step further by interpreting the neurological signal to achieve voluntary control into its artificial intelligence. Video of the Bionic Leg
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