SCH: INT: Novel Textile Based Sensors for Inner Prosthetic Socket Environment Monitoring

截肢是致残的主要原因之一。承口是义肢与截肢者残肢机械结合以替代功能丧失的重要假肢部件和物理接口。在日常假体使用过程中，客观监测内眼窝环境（即压力、温度和湿度）和残余肌肉活动需要灵活、不显眼、多模态的传感器，这些传感器可以集成到眼窝结构中，而不会引起受试者不适。缺乏这种内套传感器技术一直是评估假体套孔、防止因套孔设计和配合不良引起的并发症以及推进套孔技术的长期问题。因此，迫切需要先进的插座技术，并将在本项目下开发，以显着减少诊所就诊次数，降低截肢者的医疗成本，最终提高他们的生活质量。这个项目的影响将远远超出由此产生的直接的科学和工程贡献。利用技术进一步了解纺织品作为传感元件的能力；设计新的健康监测系统；并且以新的方式增加截肢者的舒适度和步态功能，所有这些都提供了宝贵的机会来激励和教育年轻一代，他们的教育者和广大公众朝着制造业和生物医学传感创新的未来发展。本项目旨在开发一种新颖的柔性内腔传感技术（FIRST），该技术可以无缝、不显眼、优雅地集成到下肢假肢内腔中。FIRST是基于一种电子织物结构，其中织物的纤维充当传感元件，可以同时在残肢周围的多个传感点跟踪触觉力、湿度/湿度、肌电图和体温。特别是，这个项目的重点是使这些基于软纺织品的传感器能够解决无线内插座环境监测背景下的相关挑战。本研究的主要挑战和总体目标是对多组分纤维横截面结构、织物结构及其机电响应之间的耦合和相互作用有一个基本的理解，以实现一种多模态传感器，这种传感器可以不引人注目地集成到一般的“基于纺织品的”传感设备中。我们将评估FIRST在实验室环境内外对下肢截肢患者的多重传感能力。FIRST数据的解释将确定皮肤问题的位置，使患者能够自我管理，并允许更客观的临床评估，以避免潜在的皮肤破裂和由此产生的并发症的发生。

Amputation is one of the major causes of disability. Sockets are the important prosthesis components and physical interface to integrate the prosthetic limbs mechanically with the amputee's residual limb to replace lost function. Objective monitoring of the inner socket environment (i.e. pressure, temperature, and humidity) and residual muscle activity during daily prosthesis use requires flexible, unobtrusive and multi-modal sensors that can be integrated into the socket structure without causing subject discomfort. The lack of such an inner-socket sensor technology has been a long-standing problem for evaluating the prosthesis socket, preventing the complications elicited by poor socket design and fit, and advancing the socket technologies. Therefore, advanced socket technologies are urgently needed and will be developed under this project to significantly reduce the number of clinic visits, lower the healthcare costs for amputees, and ultimately improve their quality of life. The impacts of this project will reach far beyond the immediate scientific and engineering contributions that result from it. The use of technologies to further understand the capability of textiles as sensing elements; to design novel systems to monitor the health; and to increase comfort and gait function of amputees in new ways, all provide priceless opportunities to motivate and educate younger generations, their educators and the public-at-large towards the future advancements in manufacturing and biomedical sensing innovation. This project aims to develop a novel Flexible InneR-socket Sensing Technology (FIRST) to be seamlessly, unobtrusively, and elegantly integrated into the lower-limb prosthesis socket. FIRST is based on an electronic-fabric structure where the fibers of the fabric act as sensory elements and could simultaneously track tactile forces, moisture/wetness, electromyography and body temperature at multiple sensing points around the residual limb. In particular, the focus of this project is to enable these soft textile-based sensors to address the relevant challenges in the context of wireless inner socket environment monitoring.The major challenge and overarching objective of this research is to develop a fundamental understanding of the coupling and interaction between multi-component fiber cross-sectional architecture, fabric structure, and its electro-mechanical response to achieve a multimodal sensor that can be unobtrusively integrated into 'textile-based' sensory devices in general. We will evaluate the multiple sensing capabilities of FIRST on patients with lower limb amputations inside and outside of a laboratory environment. The interpretation of FIRST data would identify locations of skin problems to enable patient-self management and allow for a more objective clinical evaluation to avoid the occurrence of potential skin breakdown and the resulting complications.