Axel González Cornejo, doctoral student in Bolívar-Nieto’s lab (left), Prof. Bolívar-Nieto (center), and undergraduate mechanical engineering student, Sbeydi Ponce Duarte (right).
Engineers at the University of Notre Dame and Purdue University are collaborating to map the location and intensity of complex forces within prosthetic sockets. While previous studies relied on data collected by experts in laboratory settings, these researchers aim to develop a data-collection system that prosthetic users can wear comfortably during their daily activities. The data collected will enable researchers to design sockets better tailored to how users move.
“We’re devising a system that seamlessly combines information from different types of sensors—external, pressure, inertial—with biomechanical models,” said Edgar Bolívar-Nieto, assistant professor in aerospace and mechanical engineering at the University of Notre Dame, “Our system will also account for sheer forces within the socket, which are challenging to measure with existing technology.”
The sensors used in this project communicate through an array of different protocols and formats. Axel González Cornejo, a graduate student in Bolívar-Nieto’s lab, is assisting his advisor by creating a monitoring system in which sensors, controller, and algorithms all “speak the same language.”
A unique component of this complex communication system is an e-textile sock, which will be worn on a user’s residual limb. Purdue University’s Sticktronics Laboratory, directed by Professor Chi Hwan Lee, creates these textiles by using a spray technique that incorporates tiny sensors into fabric. Bolívar-Nieto’s lab will merge the data collected by the sock’s sensors into the rest of the monitoring system.
As human subjects are not involved in the initial stages of this research, Sbeydi Ponce Duarte, an undergraduate mechanical engineering major and researcher in Bolívar-Nieto’s lab, manufactured an artificial residual limb using silicone. The material, she said, provided the necessary mechanical properties to support substantial pressure and would enable the lab to test its optimization algorithms and e-textiles.
“Many people with lower-limb loss also have diabetes, which causes loss of sensation,” said Bolívar-Nieto. “For this population, as well as for those with spinal cord injuries, ulcers and other injuries may occur without them realizing it. Our goal is to prevent that from happening.”
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