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

截肢是造成残疾的主要原因之一。接受腔是假肢的重要组成部分，是假肢与截肢者残肢机械结合的重要物理界面。在日常假肢使用过程中，客观监测内窝环境（即压力、温度和湿度）和残余肌肉活动需要灵活、不显眼和多模态的传感器，这些传感器可以集成到窝结构中，而不会引起受试者不适。缺乏这样的内承窝传感器技术已经成为评估假肢承窝、防止由不良承窝设计和配合引起的并发症以及推进承窝技术的长期问题。因此，迫切需要先进的插座技术，并将在该项目下开发，以显着减少诊所就诊次数，降低截肢者的医疗成本，并最终提高他们的生活质量。该项目的影响将远远超出其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;设计新的系统来监测健康;并以新的方式增加截肢者的舒适度和步态功能，所有这些都为激励和教育年轻一代提供了无价的机会，他们的教育工作者和广大公众对制造业和生物医学传感创新的未来进步。该项目旨在开发一种新型的柔性InneR承窝传感技术（FIRST），以无缝，不显眼，优雅地集成到下肢假肢承窝中。FIRST基于电子织物结构，其中织物的纤维充当传感元件，并且可以在残肢周围的多个传感点处同时跟踪触觉力、湿度/湿度、肌电图和体温。特别是，该项目的重点是使这些基于软织物的传感器能够解决无线内插座环境监测方面的相关挑战。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、以及其机电响应，以实现通常可以不引人注目地集成到“基于纺织品的”传感装置中的多模态传感器。 我们将在实验室环境内外评估FIRST对下肢截肢患者的多种感知能力。FIRST数据的解释将确定皮肤问题的位置，以使患者能够自我管理，并允许更客观的临床评价，以避免发生潜在的皮肤破裂和由此产生的并发症。

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.