Prosthetic Liner Adjusts Automatically for All-Day Wear

Oct-17-14 A new self-adjusting prosthetic from Sandia Labs could one day allow users to wear their prosthetic all day with much less discomfort.

Our bodies adjust as we move about throughout the day, and a prosthetic limb that fit comfortably in the morning may not feel so well later in the day. To help alleviate the discomfort, the team from Sandia Labs created a three-axis pressure sensor and shape-changing socket that enables the prosthetic to adjust for the best fit. The sensor is able to detect pressure from the socket from three different directions—including shear forces in two directions—and then trigger the socket's fluid-filled pockets to change shape based on the gathered data.

Currently, no feasible commercial sensing system is able to measure shear force—which is what makes the new system so promising.

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[MEDGADGET.COM]
[SHARE.SANDIA.GOV]

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