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A main efort has been devoted in this work to consider the effects of the actuator components (i.e. springs, dampers and motors) and their configuration (i.e. the way they are assembled) in power and energy requirement of powered foot prostheses. It has been investigated which actuation mechanism would have the least requirements to perform a certain human gait (e.g. walking, running, ascending or descending the stairs). This work shows that the components of the robotic foot and their configurations are important design factors. This information is fundamental for building mechanical prototypes of active foot prostheses.

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