Prosthetic or orthotic knee with kinematically activated braking system

Abstract

The invention relates to a prosthetic or orthotic knee (1) comprising: - an upper articulation element (2); - a lower articulation element (3) connected to a prosthetic foot (4) with a heel (5); - a shock absorber (6) articulated on one side to the upper articulation element (2) around a first pivot axis (7) and, on the other side to the lower articulation element (3) around a second pivot axis (8), and comprising a control member (11) adjusting, according to the phase of walking, the resistance of the shock absorber during the rotation of the upper articulation element (2) relative to the lower articulation element (3); - at least one rear connecting rod (14) articulated, on the one hand, around the upper articulation element (2) and, on the other side, to the lower articulation element (3) around a third pivot axis (16);- at least one front connecting rod (15) articulated, on the one hand, to the upper articulation element (2) around a fourth pivot axis (17) and, on the other hand, to the lower articulation element (3) around a fifth pivot axis (18); so as to define a deformable parallelogram designed so that, during knee flexion, the rear connecting rod (14) can adopt two different pivoted positions depending on the phase of walking, including: - a braking position, pivoted in a first direction, directly or indirectly actuating the control member (11) to brake the flexion of the knee (1); - a free flexion position, pivoted in a second direction opposite to the first, directly or indirectly actuating the control member (11) to release the flexion of the knee (1). Figure for the abbreviation: Fig. 1;