How do the bones and muscles react to different types of terrain and how does this apply to prosthetic legs?

Question: How do the bones and muscles react to different types of terrain and how does this apply to prosthetic legs?
- Keywords:
  terrain
Asked by olhall27 to Zach on 14 Mar 2017.
- Zach Welshman answered on 14 Mar 2017:
  
  A very similar question was asked on the 6th March 🙂
  
  The natural foot is very complex by design. It’s design (Mainly it’s soft tissues) allows it to adapt to any terrain. When your heel strikes the ground the foot is encouraged to open up and the muscles relax and as your weight moves over your foot to ‘ toe-off ‘ the muscles in the foot contract propelling your body forward.
  
  As for prosthetics it is extremely difficult to replicate this function, but I’m sure Ana could talk more on the Mechanical design of these prosthetics and the trade off between mechanical efficiency and actual human-like movement. In fact some of the work I’m doing could be used to evaluate the biomechanics of prosthetic devices. Food for thought for future work.

Question: How do the bones and muscles react to different types of terrain and how does this apply to prosthetic legs?