Achieving greater comfort and improving the quality of daily life for the disabled are a prime consideration when designing prosthetic devices such as prosthetic knees for amputees. One of the best engineering solutions for prosthetic knee is based on magnetorheological (MR) brakes. This device can produce high on-state and low off-state torques which are of critical importance for natural gait and usually unavailable considering the size and weight limitations.

Mr. Seiyed Hamid Mousavi (PhD candidate) under the supervision of Professor Hassan Sayyaadi, proposed and prototyped a new configuration of MR brake for prosthetic knee. The new configuration is a hybrid MR brake using T-shaped fin with curved outer surface. Small dimension and low weight facilitate the application of the proposed device for heavy disabled people.