Design, fabrication and validation of an ankle-foot orthosis simulator system to optimize mechanical characteristics of AFOs for humans with impaired locomotion

The muscles around the ankle (calf and dorsal flexors) are essential for performing activities in daily life, like walking. Neurological and muscular pathologies, such as stroke, cerebral palsy, spinal cord injury, muscle atrophy and post-polio syndrome, affect the ability of voluntary muscle control and/or muscle strength of such muscles. This...

The design and technical evaluation of ERiKA: An Energy Recovering Knee-Ankle prosthesis that provides support during standing up and sitting down

The Sit-to-Stand (SitTS) and Stand-to-Sit (StandTS) transitions are among the most demanding activities of daily living in terms of required muscle strength. Many elderly struggle with the transitions, which become even harder after a transfemoral amputation. The current state of the art in knee prostheses does not supply any support to reduce...

Hull Generation for Fast Concept Exploration: Development of a Brute-Force Approach to Quickly Obtain Hull Shapes and a Resistance Prediction for Offshore Patrol Vessels

Damen Shipyards Gorinchem has found deficiencies in the process of developing concept designs of Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPVs). There is a need to increase the efficiency of this process, meaning that (1) the speed has to be increased, (2) the accuracy of designs has to be increased and (3) the risk of deviations of the project plan has to be...

Towards an algorithm to optimise gait pattern for patients with above knee prosthesis with the use of inertial sensors

Misalignment in prosthetic legs can lead to bad posture, back pain and stump problems. A big influence therein is the alignment in the frontal and transverse plane of a prosthetic knee. This work aims to create an auxiliary tool for the prosthetist to align the prosthesis in an optimal way for the patient, with the use of inertial sensors. The...

Tracking Electromechanical Muscle Dynamics using Ultrafast Ultrasound and High-density EMG

Muscles generate force and enable movement. After excitation of a muscle the muscle fibers contract. Methods to assess muscle contraction in vivo are scarce. Electromechanical delay (EMD), defined as the time lag between muscle excitation and contraction onset, has been proposed as a measure for contraction efficiency, but provides limited...

Effect of Asymmetric Foot Placement and Reduced Weight-Bearing Asymmetry on the Sit-to-Stand Task of a Unilateral Transfemoral Amputee

The Sit-to-Stand (SiSt) task is one of the most crucial yet mechanically demanding daily tasks. A transfemoral amputee develops high torques on the intact leg to complete the SiSt task. Such high torques are a consequence of limited torques produced by a prosthesis. The main interest of this project is on the sit-to-stand task of a transfemoral...

In-situ Fabrication and Evaluation of Ti-6Al-4V Meta-Biomechanisms based on Selective Laser Melting

Cavitary bone defects are common in orthopedic surgery and may be present after curettage of benign tumors or as tumor-like lesions. Bone graft substitutes, especially from biocompatible materials, can be used as a solution for lling up those defects. However, these cavitary bone defects differ in size and<br/>location. It would, therefore, be...

An AM optimised transradial interface for low-income countries

Prosthetic devices remain inaccessible for many amputees in low-income countries. The lack of trained professionals and resources to fit a prosthetic (interface) are principle reasons. The low cost at which additive manufacturing technology (AM) is able to produce a custom made part could change this. As such, the aim of this study was to design...

Design of a bistable stapes prosthesis

Otosclerosis is a bone disease of the middle ear that often causes conductive hearing loss. This type of hearing loss can be treated by implanting a prosthesis, which replaces the stapes bone and attaches to the adjacent bone: the incus. Current stapes prostheses produce excellent hearing results, however the procedure is difficult to perform...

Multimodal Sensor-Fusion for Context-Aware Semi-Autonomous Control of a Multi Degree-of-Freedom Upper Limb Prosthesis

Objective. Dexterous control of myoelectric upper limb prosthesis is still limited by the capabilities of the modern human-machine interfaces. The first goal of the current work was to develop a system that supplements the academic myoelectric state-of-the-art interface during the interaction with objects (e.g., grasping, manipulation) with the...

Singularity problems

Singularity points are causing problems in motion converters. A solution is found and experimentally validated.

The rational design of meta-implants using a combination of auxetic and conventional microstructures

With the aging population growing, the increasing prevalence of osteoarthritis (OA) seems inevitable. As a result, the number of joint replacements is expected to grow substantially within the next decade. Today’s hip replacements have the potential to function for more than 20 years, but due to risk factors such as aseptic loosening, the...