Mar. 24, 2015 | By Simon
As quickly as people have learned to leverage additive manufacturing, it should come with little surprise that those who are focused on designing and fabricating various prosthetics or other medical-related devices on 3D printers are using the technology to advance what is possible on a seemingly weekly basis. While designing and fabricating low-cost and custom medical devices is one thing, a group of researchers are now using 3D printing to create ‘smart’ devices that can be embedded within existing rehabilitation equipment.
The devices, which were created in Perth, Australia at Curtin University, are designed to be a low-cost and portable solution for those needing assistance with rehabilitation for joint injuries and mobility disabilities.
Led by the school’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and senior lecturer Iain Murray, the project involves embedding sensors into normal rehabilitation equipment worn by patients. The technology can be used for both injuries and chronic disorders including cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy and motor neurone disease, among others.
The team of researchers have already done several trials using a Leapfrog 3D printer to print both the sensors and the splints used on the patients. Murray notes that the technology, which uses inertial measurement units to read acceleration in three dimensions and angular velocity, could measure the efficacy of the treatment itself.
“One of our main focuses at the moment is on the treatment and here we can watch how people are doing their physiotherapy exercises, see how long they are doing them for and because we have modelled the movement we can see if they are doing the exercise correctly,” said Murray.
Similar to other processes for creating custom prosthetics and other medical devices, the team uses a 3D scanner to gather measurement data of a limb and then uses a 3D modeling program to both add other elements - including sensors - and prepare it for 3D printing.
According to Murray, there is a 99.95% correlation with the existing method of using a motion analysis system, but the team’s technology is both cheaper and more portable for the patient - which is clearly an important aspect considering that many patients would prefer to be mobile rather than confined to stationary machines.
“They can wear it all the time so we can get much longer login periods, we can examine the data in more detail and our system costs a few hundred dollars,’’ added Murray.
This isn't the first time that Murray has used 3D printing to help bring his projects to life, either. Among other projects he has worked on while at Curtin University include a 3D printed touch-based reading device for the visually-impaired.
Posted in 3D Printing Applications
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