Generic Semi-actuated Upper-Knee Prosthetic Leg

Votes: 87
Views: 5346
Medical

A prosthesis is an artificial device that replaces a missing body part, which may be lost through trauma, disease, or congenital conditions. When a leg is amputated or lost, a prosthetic device, or prosthesis, can play an important role in rehabilitation. For many people, an artificial limb can improve mobility and the ability to manage daily activities, as well as provide the means to stay independent.

The main parts of an Upper-Knee Prosthetic Leg are: Socket, Knee joint, Pylon, Ankle joint and Feet. All these parts are personalized and the whole prosthetic leg is designed for a particular amputee. The prosthetic legs are highly customized. However, with growing age or change in the weight of the amputee, the prosthetic will become out of use as it does not fit in the residual limb of the amputee. For the diabetic patient, it is very difficult to maintain his/her weight constant with the time.

Moreover, they face swelling problems which is itself a problem. Amputees are advised to control their body weight within the tolerance limit of 2-3% of the total weight. After that the particularly designed prosthetic leg will become out of use because of loosening or tightening of the socket due to change in thigh diameter. Most of the Upper-Knee Prosthetics are not very comfortable because of the attachment problem of the amputee leg that is the socket portion. This results in excess sweat in the thigh portion and also a huge amount of pain.

The cost of fully actuated prosthetic legs is too expensive and is very difficult to afford. Therefore most of the Indians use Simple Prosthetic from Jaipur Foot. The Simple Prosthetic Legs, also known as Passive Prosthetic Legs is just like a crutch and the amputee has to make the whole effort for walking just using the residual limb (the remaining portion of the amputee leg) which causes a lot of pain to an amputee and they avoid walking most of the time. Most of the automated prosthetic legs costs from Rupees 100,000 to 680,000. Automated Prosthetic Legs have actuators for the knee movement and provides ease in walking but are not manufactured in India. However, Jaipur Foot is an Indian organization which manufactures Simple Prosthetic Legs but only for the case of below-knee amputation. Simple Prosthetic Legs are just like a crutch which provides only simple support while walking which causes pain, rashes and sweat. Though the cost of these Simple Prosthetics are Rupees 6000-7000 they are of no use. This product is made for around Rupees 9000.

The porous cloth material the sweat in the thigh portion. The variability of the socket diameter accounts for the pain. The actuators provides ease in walking and the springs and rubber at the bottom provides stability and ease in standing. The variable pylon length and socket diameter gives the advantage to adapt the changes in the body shape and weight with the growing age or due to health problems.

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  • ABOUT THE ENTRANT

  • Name:
    Avashesh Singh
  • Type of entry:
    team
    Team members:
    Avashesh Singh Mayur Mishra Ovais Malik
  • Profession:
    Student
  • Avashesh is inspired by:
    The present scenario of the Amputees in India and the problems faced by the disables and people using prosthetic all over the world, mainly the problem of sweat and pain. A middle class person can never afford a fully-actuated Prosthetic Leg and a passive-Prosthetic leg is not of that comfort and ease to use.This inflences us to work on this project.
  • Software used for this entry:
    Arduino, Solidworks, ADAMS
  • Patent status:
    none