Indoor motion analysis of a subject wearing prosthesis for adaptive snowboarding

The growing popularity of adaptive snowboarding has motivated the designs of new prostheses for lower limb amputees. In the paper the biomechanics of an amputee subject wearing an energy-storing trans-femoral prosthesis for snowboarding is investigated. Experimental motion analysis lab tests were conducted by two expert surfers, an amputee and an able body subject, in order to compare the different behaviours. Results for the two subjects and for different working conditions are reported and analysed. A strong dependence of the prosthesis behaviour on working conditions, especially on working frequency, can be pointed out.