A portable skin deformation measurement platform for user-specific wearable interface design (U-WEAR)

用于用户特定可穿戴界面设计的便携式皮肤变形测量平台（U-WEAR）

• 批准号: EP/X037916/1
• 负责人: Dario Farina
• 金额: $ 16.47万
• 依托单位: Imperial College London
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FX037916%2F1
• 关键词: portable; skin; deformation; measurement; platform

Human skin stretches and compresses during movements. Knowing the skin deformation as a function of limb kinematics is strictly necessary for the large-scale deployment of wearable systems, such as textiles with embedded electrodes or sockets for prostheses. However, predicting these skin deformations accurately is currently not possible. U-WEAR ("A portable skin deformation measurement platform for user-specific wearable interface design") aims to develop a user-specific measurement platform to inform the design of biomechanically seamless interfaces with the skin that become a natural extension of the wearer. The project has been developed as an extension to the research conducted under the ERC Synergy Grant Natural BionicS that aims to control and sense soft-robotic prosthetic limbs. Crucial for prostheses to truly become a natural extension of the wearer is the interface between the wearer and the bionic system, i.e. the prosthetic socket. The design of this interface is critical for the acceptability and efficacy of bionic limbs. U-WEAR will address this gap in prosthetics, as well as in several other wearable robots such as soft exoskeletons, by developing an affordable, fast and accurate motion capture-based platform with machine-learning-based dynamics modelling, enabling physics/mathematics analyses of skin deformation during movement. U-WEAR will provide a subject-specific quantitative understanding of skin biomechanics, and how limb surface and volume change during limb movements. The successful realisation of this framework will open opportunities in applications ranging from wearable robots to skin flaps planning in reconstructive surgery, and clothing and footwear. The developed technology will be translated into a market product by a spin-off company which will progressively, in three stages, address the markets of the scientific research community and of large corporates.

人体皮肤在运动过程中会拉伸和压缩。了解作为肢体运动学函数的皮肤变形对于可穿戴系统的大规模部署是严格必要的，例如具有嵌入式电极或假体插座的纺织品。然而，准确地预测这些皮肤变形目前是不可能的。U-WEAR（“用于用户特定可穿戴界面设计的便携式皮肤变形测量平台”）旨在开发一个用户特定的测量平台，以告知与皮肤的生物力学无缝界面的设计，该界面成为穿戴者的自然延伸。该项目是在ERC Synergy Grant Natural BionicS下进行的研究的延伸，旨在控制和感知软机器人假肢。假肢要真正成为佩戴者的自然延伸，关键是佩戴者与仿生系统（即假肢接受腔）之间的界面。该接口的设计是仿生肢体可接受性和有效性的关键。U-WEAR将通过开发一个经济实惠、快速准确的基于运动捕捉的平台，并利用基于机器学习的动力学建模，对运动过程中的皮肤变形进行物理/数学分析，来解决假肢以及其他几种可穿戴机器人（如软外骨骼）中的这一差距。U-WEAR将提供对皮肤生物力学的特定对象的定量理解，以及肢体运动期间肢体表面和体积如何变化。这一框架的成功实现将为可穿戴机器人、重建手术中的皮瓣规划以及服装和鞋类等应用提供机会。开发的技术将由一家分拆公司转化为市场产品，该公司将分三个阶段逐步解决科学研究界和大型企业的市场问题。