The aim of the study is to compare Ziegler-Nichols (Z-N) and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) based tuning methods for controller tuning in the driving mechanism of prosthetic limbs. By adopting suitable control strategies like P, PI and PID in the driving system, the positioning of knee and hip joints can be attained in the ideal time of 1.4s for completing one locomotion cycle. The gain constants (KP , KI , and KD) of the controllers were tuned manually and also using Z-N and PSO; thereby appropriate constants were determined so that the joints could be moved to the desired position. The performance of P, PI, and PID controllers were compared and PID was identified as the ideal control strategy which exhibited least error and good stability. It was observed that the conventional Z-N method produced a big overshoot, and so a modern approach called PSO was employed to enhance its capability. The PSO based PID controller optimization resulted in less overshoot as well as it helped in optimizing the gain constants so as to improve the stability of the system when compared to the classical method.