Biomechanical and biotribological approaches to understand the contact between human skin and bionic limbs

皮肤是由表皮、真皮层和皮下组织组成的复杂复合物，每个组织都具有不同的机械和生理特性。在截肢者中，肢体的界面，即皮肤和假肢之间的界面对于伤口或溃疡的治疗至关重要。此外，粘弹性皮肤由于身体的运动和姿势以及各种抑制恢复的环境条件而受到循环载荷，从而导致耗时和具有挑战性的场景。因此，有必要了解皮肤的生物力学行为，如与硬仿生材料相互作用时的变形和应力分布。该项目旨在利用动态建模平台研究仿生肢体与柔软皮肤组织之间的相互作用。这个平台将是突破性的发现单个皮肤细胞之间的联系，以关联组织中的全部效果。验证该模型的实验将在拉夫堡大学生物工程中心与谢菲尔德大学莱昂纳多摩擦学中心合作进行。

The skin is a complex composite consisting of epidermis, dermis and subcutaneous tissue, each with different mechanical and physiological properties. In amputees, the interface of a limb i.e between the skin and the prosthetic is crucial for the treatment of wounds or sores. Besides, viscoelastic skin is subjected to cyclic loading due to bodily movements and posture as well as to various environmental conditions inhibiting the recovery and resulting in time-consuming and challenging scenarios. Hence, there is a need to understand the biomechanical behaviour of skin such as deformation and stress distribution during the interaction with hard bionic materials.The project aims to investigate the interaction between the bionic limbs and soft skin tissue using a dynamic modelling platform. This platform will be groundbreaking for finding a link between the individual skin cells to correlate the full effect in the tissue. Experiments to validate the model will be conducted at the Centre for Biological Engineering, Loughborough University in collaboration with The Leonardo Tribology Centre, University of Sheffield.