LIMBER UniLeg: A digital and additive manufacturing approach for accessible prosthetic care.

总结 LIMBER旨在提供的技术是一种全方位的服务，能够快速和规模化地制造 为截肢者提供定制的假肢。世界卫生组织（世卫组织）估计， 在全世界数百万截肢者中，只有5%至15%的人能够获得假肢或其他辅助设备。缺乏 广泛的可用性是因为大多数康复设备是由假肢专家通过 复杂且耗时的过程。 第一阶段SBIR提案将确认LIMBER假肢设计和制造系统的可行性， 通过结合最新的3D扫描、数字设计和增材制造技术， 制造技术，以提高专业修复师的能力， 功能性“一体式”经胫骨假肢，其舒适、重量轻且自动制造。 LIMBER的工艺利用智能手机中嵌入的结构光扫描功能， 腰部以下截肢者扫描可以由修复师或受过训练的技术人员在几分钟内完成，进一步 提高了效率，缓解了传统工艺的瓶颈。然后将数据传输到LIMBER的 云，我们熟练的假肢师将其转化为个性化的单件（插座，假肢和踝足组合） 3D打印的假肢在对15名下肢截肢者进行研究后，我们的初步发现包括： 平均成本、重量和生产时间分别减少79%、55%和66%。

Summary The technology LIMBER aims to provide is an all-inclusive service that enables the rapid and scaled-up manufacturing of customized prosthetics on-demand for amputees. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that out of the tens of millions of amputees worldwide, only 5% to 15% have access to prosthetics or other assistive devices. The lack of widespread availability is because most rehabilitation devices are designed and hand-crafted by prosthetists through a complex and time-consuming process. This Phase I SBIR proposal will confirm the feasibility of LIMBER’s prosthetic design and manufacturing system that overcomes the custom-care and cost barriers by combining the latest in 3D scanning, digital design, and additive manufacturing technologies to increase the capacity of professional prosthetists and provide access to affordable and functional ‘unibody’ transtibial prosthetic limbs that are comfortable, lightweight, and automatically fabricated. LIMBER’s process leverages the structured light scanning capability embedded in smartphones to create a digital twin of an amputee from the waist down. Scanning can be accomplished in minutes by a prosthetist or trained technician, further improving efficiency and alleviating bottlenecks of the conventional process. The data is then transferred to LIMBER’s cloud, where our skilled prosthetists transform it into a personalized single-piece (socket, pylon, and ankle-foot combined) prosthetic device that is 3D printed. After working with 15 lower-limb amputees, our preliminary findings include a reduction in the average cost, weight, and time of production by 79%, 55%, and 66%, respectively.