TEXTILES.ORG
British biomedical startup Unhindr, an Imperial College London spinoff company, is developing an adaptive lining for the sockets of prosthetic limbs that responds to how the body’s soft tissue naturally shrinks and swells during the day. Because a prosthetic limb that fits in the morning may not fit the same way late in the afternoon, the company created the material named “Roliner” to pad the inside of the socket.
Roliner is composed mainly of soft silicone rubber with small air channels running through it. A compact onboard battery-powered pump can inflate or deflate those channels on demand, changing the shape, volume and stiffness of the padding. When the augmented prosthesis is first being used, the wearer uses an app to manually activate the pump throughout the day, tightening, loosening or shifting the fit in real time as needed. This may be required in response to soft tissue changes brought about by variables such as activity level, time of day, or ambient temperature.
Ultimately, an AI-based algorithm learns how the fit tends to be altered over the course of a typical day. This knowledge allows the product’s channels to be inflated or deflated automatically, as a preemptive means of avoiding discomfort, lowered performance, or even the formation of pressure sores. The fit can also be manually adjusted as needed.
It is hoped that the new system will be available for use in the U.K. by the end of this year, perhaps joining a similar system being developed at the Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials. The technology could also find use in applications other than prosthetics, such as wearable exoskeletons, downhill ski boots, or even spacesuits.
A paper on the research was recently published in the journal Nature Communications.
SOURCE: newatlas.com with information provided by Imperial College London.