Scientists at IIT Madras have come up with 3D printed prosthetic feet at the TTK Centre of Rehabilitation Research and Device development
According to an IIT-Madras write-up on the topic, “it is a blend of mathematics and engineering.” Balaramakrishnan, Sundararajan Natarajan, and Sujatha Srinivasan from IIT Madras used finite element analysis (FEA), a technique used to arrive at the critical parameters of a physical system numerically.
Given that prosthetic feet are often built by trial and error, which makes the process costly, labor-intensive, and time-consuming, an alternative numerical design technique was deemed to be superior. As a result, an a priori model (derived from theoretical reasoning) was created to analyse the important biomechanical characteristics of a prosthetic foot. Through the change of stiffness characteristics, such an avenue can help in the appropriate design of a prosthetic foot, while also being incredibly efficient. Furthermore, earlier computational attempts did not take into account the non-linear material and contact behaviour, which are important aspects of prosthetic foot.
It is the first time that FEA has been used in the design of prosthetic feet. It considers a prosthetic foot’s geometry, material, and touch non-linearity. Four biomechanical aspects of a prosthetic foot were investigated: the pressure trajectory, the ankle range of motion, the ankle flexion moment, and the rollover shape.
Despite thorough characterization of a prosthesis user’s walking, the main hurdle to the creation of a functional prosthetic foot has been the lack of a numerical technique for a prior assessment of biomechanical parameters. This research has filled the void.
