End-to-End Control of a Powered Knee-Ankle Prosthesis Towards Unified, Tuning-Free Assistance

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2606.07902v1
• Date: Fri, 05 Jun 2026 23:24:21 GMT
• Title: End-to-End Control of a Powered Knee-Ankle Prosthesis Towards Unified, Tuning-Free Assistance
• Abstract summary: We present real-time deployment of an end-to-end prosthesis controller that estimates continuous actuator signals from onboard sensors.<n>Temporal Convolutional Networks were trained on a multi-terrain dataset from 18 individuals with transfemoral amputation.
• Score: 1.7837718124568467
• License: http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/
• Abstract: Powered prostheses conventionally rely on impedance controllers that require extensive manual tuning and explicit mode classification. In this work, we present real-time deployment of an end-to-end prosthesis controller that estimates continuous actuator signals from onboard sensors, eliminating the need for intent classifiers and subject-specific tuning. Temporal Convolutional Networks were trained on a multi-terrain dataset from 18 individuals with transfemoral amputation and deployed in real time across five locomotion modes. Four participants (three able-bodied, one with transfemoral amputation) ambulated across level ground, ramp ascent and descent, and stair ascent and descent. During level walking, the deployed controller reproduced the training-data scaling of peak ankle torque with walking speed (deployed 0.85 Nm/kg per m/s, p = 0.001; training 0.96 Nm/kg per m/s, 95% CI [0.42, 1.50], p = 0.002), after excluding one outlier traced to atypical prosthesis loading. During ramp ascent, the controller scaled knee pre-flexion with grade (deployed 2.92 deg/deg, p = 0.027; training 3.30 deg/deg, 95% CI [1.83, 4.77], p < 0.001). During ramp descent, the controller increased resistive knee torque relative to level walking (deployed +0.16 Nm/kg, p < 0.001; training +0.16 Nm/kg, p = 0.008). Seamless stair transitions were generated for both intact- and prosthetic-side-leading sequences in ascent and descent, despite the training data containing only one limb-leading sequence. These results provide initial evidence towards end-to-end control that can provide unified, mode-adaptive prosthetic assistance without subject-specific tuning.

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