A digital patient for computer-aided prosthesis design

This paper concerns the design of lower limb prosthesis, both below and above knee. It describes a new computer based design framework and a digital model of the amputee around which the prosthesis is designed and tested in a completely virtual environment. The virtual model of patient is the backbone of the whole system and it is based on a biomechanical general-purpose model customised with patient’s characteristics (e.g., anthropometric measures). The software platform, centred on the patient’s avatar, adopts computer-aided and knowledge-guided approaches with the goal of replacing the current development process, mainly hand-made, with a virtual one. It provides the prosthetics with a set of tools to design, configure and test the prosthesis and comprehends two main environments: the Prosthesis Modelling Lab and the Virtual Testing Lab. The first permits to configure and generate the 3D model of the prosthesis, while the second allows the prosthetics to virtually set up the artificial leg and simulate patient’s postures and movements validating its functionality and configuration. General architecture and modelling/simulation tools of the platform are described as well as main aspects and results of the experimentation.