From IIT-Guwahati, a prosthetic leg that allows deep squatting, cross-legged sitting

Research said the prosthetic leg has been designed for Indian conditions to suit uneven terrain

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati (IITG) have developed a prosthetic leg that allows its user to sit cross-legged and squat deep and is suitable for uneven terrain.

Designed for Indian conditions, the prosthetic leg is also adjustable for different age groups and multiple stages of prosthetic use. It has been tested to support up to 100 kg body weight and entails a cost of about ₹2.5 lakh, the institute said in a statement on Monday.

The research, funded by the Ministry of Education and the Department of Biotechnology, was in collaboration with the Army’s 151 Base Hospital in Guwahati, the Tolaram Bafna Kamrup District Civil Hospital, the Guwahati Neurological Research Centre and the North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences in Shillong.

According to S. Kanagaraj of IITG’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, development of prosthesis in India faces many challenges, and highly functional mobility for amputees requires devices with advanced features that are expensive. Low-cost prosthetics, on the other hand, have many functional limitations and are not widely available in the market.

“The knee joint developed by our team has a spring assisted deep-squat mechanism, which helps to use Indian toilet system more comfortably. The knee rotating mechanism aids cross-legged sitting and the locking mechanism helps reduce the chances of the user falling while walking on an unknown terrain,” he said.

“The adjustable link length in a knee enables more stability or easy flexing depending on the age and requirement of the user. Overall, the knee joint is designed to meet the Indian lifestyle which other products fail to fulfil,” he added.

The research team said the prosthetic leg can be customised and adjusted by the user for various needs and its weight can be reduced by selecting suitable polymers, aluminium allows and stainless steel for different components.