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A Replay-Constrained Simulation Framework for Personalization of Powered Knee--Ankle Prosthesis Controllers

Summary

Researchers present a replay-constrained simulation framework using MuJoCo to personalize powered knee-ankle prosthesis controllers. By replaying recorded hip kinematics and ground reaction forces, the framework avoids modeling complex human neuromuscular control. Deep reinforcement learning simultaneously personalizes stiffness, damping, and equilibrium angle for both joints, maximizing a biomimicry reward from onboard sensors. Experiments with three transfemoral amputees showed strong predictive validity (Pearson r=0.96-0.997) and improved biomimicry rewards by 42-59% over unpersonalized baselines.

SourcearXiv RoboticsAuthor: Duong Le, Ryan Posh, Shihao Cheng, Maani Ghaffari, Robert D. Gregg
A Replay-Constrained Simulation Framework for Personalization of Powered Knee--Ankle Prosthesis Controllers
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[Submitted on 24 Jul 2026]

Title:A Replay-Constrained Simulation Framework for Personalization of Powered Knee--Ankle Prosthesis Controllers

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Abstract:Personalization of impedance controllers for powered prosthetic legs is critical to accommodating individual gait biomechanics but remains challenging. Existing methods rely on time-intensive human-in-the-loop exploration and/or constrain optimization to low-dimensional, single-joint parameter subspaces. Sim-to-real transfer has enabled high-dimensional locomotion control for legged robots, but in assistive device control the human partner remains un-modelable. We present a replay-constrained simulation framework: a MuJoCo-based simulator reproduces prosthetic knee-ankle dynamics while replaying recorded hip kinematics and feedback-based ground reaction forces from individual walking data, bypassing the need to model complex human neuromuscular control mechanisms. We demonstrate the framework with a deep reinforcement learning policy that personalizes phase-dependent stiffness, damping, and equilibrium angle at both joints simultaneously, maximizing a biomimicry-based reward computed solely from onboard prosthesis measurements. Experiments with three participants with transfemoral amputation during level-ground walking at 0.8~m/s demonstrate strong simulation-to-hardware predictive validity (Pearson $r=0.96$--$0.997$). The best-performing policy on hardware was consistently predicted within the top five simulation policies for all participants. The learned controllers improved overall biomimicry rewards by 42--59\% relative to the unpersonalized baseline. The framework supports scalable high-dimensional personalization of powered prosthetic legs and is amenable to extension to higher-dimensional controller parameterizations such as neural-network controllers.

Subjects:

Robotics (cs.RO)

Cite as: arXiv:2607.22858 [cs.RO]

(or arXiv:2607.22858v1 [cs.RO] for this version)

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2607.22858

arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration)

Submission history

From: Duong Le [view email] [v1] Fri, 24 Jul 2026 18:59:48 UTC (9,941 KB)

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Key points and analysis

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Key points

  • Replay-constrained simulation bypasses need for human neuromuscular models
  • Deep RL personalizes impedance parameters for both knee and ankle joints
  • Strong simulation-to-hardware prediction in three amputee participants
  • Learned controllers improve biomimicry reward by 42-59%

Highlights and analysis are generated automatically and may contain errors. Check the original source.