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Novel Bio-Inspired 'Smart' Joint for Prosthetics and Robotics Lower Limbs

用于假肢和机器人下肢的新型仿生“智能”关节

基本信息

批准号：
EP/P022588/1
负责人：
Appolinaire Etoundi
金额：
$ 12.88万
依托单位：
University of the West of England
依托单位国家：
英国
项目类别：
Research Grant
财政年份：
2017
资助国家：
英国
起止时间：
2017 至无数据
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FP022588%2F1
关键词：
Novel Bio Inspired Smart Joint

项目摘要

At present there are over 90,000 new cases of knee replacements and leg amputations every year in the UK alone. This is equivalent to approximately one every six minutes. Currently between 5 - 6,000 major limb amputations are performed in the UK each year and trauma accounts for approximately 55% of them. Lower limb amputation has a profound effect on activities of daily living and not all amputees are able to tolerate or use a prosthesis. Therefore, it is essential that the prosthesis is comfortable and adapted to be used by patients in order to enhance their daily activities. Artificial knee joints are important medical devices that enable many people to maintain walking and running functions. In working towards this target, researchers have repeatedly missed the key role held by the correlation between the soft tissues (ligaments) and the structure (bones) in human-like locomotion. Biological joints demonstrate multi-functionality by integrating high conformity, compactness and low friction. These functions are crucial when designing a functional and robust joint by including this separation of functions at the conceptual stage.Though there is still little known about the exact implications and mechanisms involved while performing human movement, recent engineering research into the mechanics of the ligaments and the analysis of the knee joint in compression has produced models and simulations that have shed light on some of the possible roles of the human knee features. Therefore, we believe that this separation of functions into the design process of prosthetic joint is essential to facilitate design optimisation.Researchers are actively engaged in developing wearable devices including prosthetics that are increasingly embedding control and electronics sub-systems making them more autonomous and 'smarter'. On the other hand, limitations on space and power mean that artificial limb joints (for robots or prosthetics) must be highly optimised for mechanical performance in areas such as stiffness, strength, friction, mechanical advantage, backlash and endurance.Current trends in the design of artificial lower limbs, ranging from robotic articulations to prostheses for lower limb amputees, favour the utilisation of engineered joints, which typically are composed of a pin joint containing a hinge-pin and ball bearings. Particular prosthetic knee joints (polycentric) contain four-bar mechanisms in order to produce a moving centre of rotation as is the case with the human knee. There are two main categories of control for prosthetic knee joints - microprocessor control (use of an electronic unit, evaluating and making internal adjustments to control the motion) and mechanical control (use of a mechanical hinge, automatically controlled by the mechanism).The main purpose of this work is to further the state-of-the-art in prosthetics design and lower robotic limbs for transfemoral (above knee) amputees and humanoids robots in areas relevant to artificial devices and their uses for locomotion including walking, climbing stairs, squatting and also stability. This research will combine the relationship between three areas: the technological advancements of lower robotic limbs, knee implant design for total knee replacement, and the emergence of 'smart' prosthetics.In this two-year programme, we will investigate the feasibility and development of a novel bio-inspired prosthetic joint that will exploit the key and beneficial features of human knee joint. This research will be achieved by featuring a progressive bottom up approach towards the design and test of the bio-inspired 'smart' joint. A comparative investigation with respect to human performance (energy consumption and gait efficiency) between the novel bio-inspired joint against current prosthetics provided by the industrial partners will be undertaken with the contribution of a para-triathlete gold medallist in the Rio Paralympics 2016.

目前，仅在英国，每年就有超过9万例新的膝关节置换和腿部截肢病例。这大约相当于每六分钟一次。目前，英国每年约有5-6000例大型截肢手术，其中约55%是由创伤造成的。截肢对日常生活活动影响深远，并不是所有的截肢者都能耐受或使用假肢。因此，为了提高患者的日常活动能力，假体的舒适性和适应性是至关重要的。人工膝关节是许多人维持行走和跑步功能的重要医疗设备。在朝着这个目标努力的过程中，研究人员一再错过软组织(韧带)和结构(骨骼)之间的相关性在类似人类运动中所起的关键作用。生物关节集高一致性、致密性和低摩擦力于一体，显示出多功能。通过在概念阶段包括这种功能分离，这些功能在设计功能和健壮的关节时是至关重要的。尽管人们对执行人类运动时涉及的确切含义和机制知之甚少，但最近对韧带力学的工程研究和对膝关节受压的分析已经产生了模型和模拟，揭示了人类膝关节特征的一些可能的作用。因此，我们认为，将功能分离到假肢关节的设计过程中是必要的，以促进设计优化。研究人员正在积极开发可穿戴设备，包括假肢，这些假肢越来越多地嵌入控制和电子子系统，使它们变得更自主和更智能。另一方面，空间和功率的限制意味着(机器人或假肢)假肢关节必须在机械性能方面进行高度优化，如刚度、强度、摩擦力、机械优势、间隙和耐力。从机器人关节到腿部截肢者的假肢，目前假肢设计的趋势是支持使用工程关节，通常由包含铰链销和滚珠轴承的销关节组成。特定的假肢膝关节(多中心)包含四杆机构，以产生一个移动的旋转中心，就像人类的膝盖一样。假体膝关节的控制主要有两类-微处理器控制(使用电子设备，评估和进行内部调整以控制运动)和机械控制(使用机械铰链，由机构自动控制)。这项工作的主要目的是促进最先进的假肢设计和下部机械臂，在与人工设备相关的领域，以及它们用于行走、爬楼梯、蹲下和稳定的领域。这项研究将结合三个领域之间的关系：下肢机械臂的技术进步，全膝关节置换的膝关节植入物设计，以及“智能”假肢的出现。在这个为期两年的计划中，我们将研究一种新型的仿生假肢的可行性和开发，它将利用人类膝关节的关键和有益的特征。这项研究将通过一种循序渐进的自下而上的方法来实现，以设计和测试受生物启发的“智能”关节。在2016年里约残奥会上，一名铁人三项运动员金牌得主将对新型仿生假肢与工业合作伙伴提供的现有假肢进行人体性能(能源消耗和步态效率)的比较调查。