Printable Prosthetics

<p>The practice of fitting and making prosthetic limbs using current techniques leaves little room for innovative research and design. Though market leaders are consistently producing more advanced components, prosthetic technicians are using traditional techniques to fabricate prosthetic limbs. New material and design technologies could enable progressive solutions to historic barriers such as fabrication time and cost. Increasing the amputee’s accessibility to, and enjoyment of exercise may help to advocate and improve their physical and mental health. Design research was used to develop a functional 3D printed swimming prosthesis for lower limb amputees with the use of 3D scanning, parametric software and Fused Deposition Modelling. Using digital technologies has the potential to provide a platform for cost effective specialty prosthetic limbs, enabling and enriching recreational sport for amputees. Prototypes were developed with a unilateral trans-tibial amputee using an iterative process involving material testing and user testing. These prototypes allowed him to walk independently to the pool and produced positive effects on his swimming, including a recreated anthropometric symmetry. As advances in data collection and additive manufacturing continue to be made we will be able to more closely cater to the individual’s needs whilst challenging the status quo in prosthesis craft.</p>

Printable Prosthetics

<p>The practice of fitting and making prosthetic limbs using current techniques leaves little room for innovative research and design. Though market leaders are consistently producing more advanced components, prosthetic technicians are using traditional techniques to fabricate prosthetic limbs. New material and design technologies could enable progressive solutions to historic barriers such as fabrication time and cost. Increasing the amputee’s accessibility to, and enjoyment of exercise may help to advocate and improve their physical and mental health. Design research was used to develop a functional 3D printed swimming prosthesis for lower limb amputees with the use of 3D scanning, parametric software and Fused Deposition Modelling. Using digital technologies has the potential to provide a platform for cost effective specialty prosthetic limbs, enabling and enriching recreational sport for amputees. Prototypes were developed with a unilateral trans-tibial amputee using an iterative process involving material testing and user testing. These prototypes allowed him to walk independently to the pool and produced positive effects on his swimming, including a recreated anthropometric symmetry. As advances in data collection and additive manufacturing continue to be made we will be able to more closely cater to the individual’s needs whilst challenging the status quo in prosthesis craft.</p>

Should Oscar Pistorius be Allowed to Compete at the Olympic Games?

<p>On the 4th of August 2012 South African runner Oscar Pistorius became the first athlete to compete at the Olympic Games while running on prosthetic limbs. Pistorius is a double below the knee amputee who runs on carbon J-shaped fibre blades. He represents a fusion of humanity and technology that will become an increasingly pressing issue for the sporting arena in the coming years. In this essay I use Pistorius as a case study to investigate how decisions regarding the use of enhancement technologies in sport should be made. I argue that the key characteristic that should be assessed is whether Pistorius' prosthetic legs mean that he is competing in a different sport to able-bodied athletes when he runs. I contend that the best method for deciding whether or not Pistorius is competing in the same sport as able-bodied athletes is to adopt a balance of excellences view of sport (Devine, 2010). I use this model to show that the excellence of exploiting technical aids is far more important for Pistorius than it is for his able-bodied counterparts. From this I conclude that what Pistorius does when he runs is not comparable to able-bodied runners. Thus he should not be allowed to compete against able-bodied athletes at the Olympic Games.</p>

Should Oscar Pistorius be Allowed to Compete at the Olympic Games?

<p>On the 4th of August 2012 South African runner Oscar Pistorius became the first athlete to compete at the Olympic Games while running on prosthetic limbs. Pistorius is a double below the knee amputee who runs on carbon J-shaped fibre blades. He represents a fusion of humanity and technology that will become an increasingly pressing issue for the sporting arena in the coming years. In this essay I use Pistorius as a case study to investigate how decisions regarding the use of enhancement technologies in sport should be made. I argue that the key characteristic that should be assessed is whether Pistorius' prosthetic legs mean that he is competing in a different sport to able-bodied athletes when he runs. I contend that the best method for deciding whether or not Pistorius is competing in the same sport as able-bodied athletes is to adopt a balance of excellences view of sport (Devine, 2010). I use this model to show that the excellence of exploiting technical aids is far more important for Pistorius than it is for his able-bodied counterparts. From this I conclude that what Pistorius does when he runs is not comparable to able-bodied runners. Thus he should not be allowed to compete against able-bodied athletes at the Olympic Games.</p>

Evaluation of Electromyogram Signals in the Control of Prosthetic Limb: A Review

: Electromyogram (EMG) signals are produced by the human body and are used in prosthetic design due to its significant functionality with human biomechanics. Engineers are capable of developing a variety of prosthetic limbs with the advancement of technology in the domain of biomedical signal processing, as limb amputees can restore their lives with the help of prosthetic limbs. This current review paper looks at the signals that are used to monitor the device, explaining the various steps and techniques involved (such as data acquisition, feature vector conversion after noise, and redundant data removal) and reviewing previously developed electromyogram-based prosthetic controls. Furthermore, this research also focuses on a variety of electromyogram controlled applications.

Performance of Athletic Prosthetic Feet Made of Various Composite Materials with PMMA Matrix: Numerical and Theoretical Study

Prosthetic upgrades are specialized prosthetics that enable patients to participate in more demanding recreational activities, such as running. This study examines the use of prosthetic limbs, specifically the athletic prosthetic foot. The current research focused on the manufacturing and production properties of an samples athletic prosthetic Foot made from composite materials based on a polymethyl methacrylate resin (PMMA) reinforced with various fibers (UHMWPE, Perlon, Carbon fiber, and Glass fiber). The finite element method (ANSYS-19R) is used to build an athletic prosthetic model and apply boundary conditions to investigate the influence of deformation and stored energy on the performance of the sports prosthetic foot. Six laminates have been manufactured, and it has been discovered that adding a number of carbon fiber layers to UHMWPE has a better effect on deformation than adding a glass fiber 26% improvement. Furthermore, the findings show there is an improvement in performance when the number of classes was doubled, as the rate of improvement between the laminate to which carbon fibers were added was 31%, and between the laminate to which glass fibers were added by 32% under the same boundary conditions.

Prospects for the use of polymer composite materials in the manufacture of prostheses (review)

One of the areas of application of composite materials is their use in the manufacture of parts of prosthetic limbs. Advances in the development of composite materials in recent years have led to an active growth in their use in modern orthopedic medicine. Composites have excellent characteristics of strength and weight compared with metallic materials, as well as biocompatibility, which allows them to be used in the manufacture of prostheses. The article discusses various composite materials and their physico-mechanical properties, manufacturing companies and their products for people with different needs. VIAM has developed a whole series of materials that can be proposed for the manufacture of prostheses.

Embodied Cooperation to Promote Forgiving Interactions With Autonomous Machines

During every waking moment, we must engage with our environments, the people around us, the tools we use, and even our own bodies to perform actions and achieve our intentions. There is a spectrum of control that we have over our surroundings that spans the extremes from full to negligible. When the outcomes of our actions do not align with our goals, we have a tremendous capacity to displace blame and frustration on external factors while forgiving ourselves. This is especially true when we cooperate with machines; they are rarely afforded the level of forgiveness we provide our bodies and often bear much of our blame. Yet, our brain readily engages with autonomous processes in controlling our bodies to coordinate complex patterns of muscle contractions, make postural adjustments, adapt to external perturbations, among many others. This acceptance of biological autonomy may provide avenues to promote more forgiving human-machine partnerships. In this perspectives paper, we argue that striving for machine embodiment is a pathway to achieving effective and forgiving human-machine relationships. We discuss the mechanisms that help us identify ourselves and our bodies as separate from our environments and we describe their roles in achieving embodied cooperation. Using a representative selection of examples in neurally interfaced prosthetic limbs and intelligent mechatronics, we describe techniques to engage these same mechanisms when designing autonomous systems and their potential bidirectional interfaces.