Explained: A prosthetic leg suited for the way Indians sit and walk, adjustable and affordable | Explained News,The Indian Express
The device contains a knee-locking mechanism that can be activated and deactivated depending on varying conditions. It also provides for adjustment of link length, and includes an alignment adjuster mechanism.
Prosthetic legs available in the market are not affordable to everyone, and those that are do not always suit the special needs of Indian users. Such as sitting cross-legged, squatting on the toilet, or negotiating uneven terrain. Now, a prosthetic leg designed by researchers at IIT Guwahati seeks to address these needs, and will be available at Rs 25,000, they say.
In research funded by the Ministry of Education and the Department of Biotechnology, IIT Guwahati scientists and collaborators worked with patients for several years, assessing their special needs and addressing these in their prosthetic leg. Now in the last stage of patient trials, the product should reach the market within a year, they said.
The knee
“Western-style” prosthetic legs do not allow for the squat necessary for those using a squat toilet. These devices allow sitting only in the “chair position”, or at 90°.
“If a person tries to sit further down, the knee locks itself. Instead of trying to support the patient in standing up, it will reverse itself… and the person will be forced to sit down,” researcher S Kanagaraj, professor of mechanical engineering at IIT-G, told The Indian Express.
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