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Research Aims to Provide Affordable Prosthetics
Spencer Jefferson 鈥17 and Philip Jewett 鈥17 fit the prosthetic leg they constructed as part of their capstone project onto a volunteer subject. 鈥 VMI Photo by Kelly Nye.
LEXINGTON, Va., April 24, 2017 鈥 A project underway in the mechanical engineering lab at VMI may someday help amputees in developing countries.
Maj. Joyce Blandino, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, has led a group of three cadets in her capstone class, mechanical engineering design, in their quest to develop a low-cost prosthetic for below-the-knee amputees.
Blandino explained that she鈥檚 had an interest in prosthetics since graduate school, but until she and Col. Mike Krackow, professor of physical education, teamed up two years ago on a biomechanics project, she had no way of testing her ideas.
Their 2015 receipt of a Jackson-Hope Fund grant to purchase a force plate and an electromyography machine, which records electrical activity produced by muscles, provided Blandino with the equipment she鈥檇 need to test the forces acting upon an artificial leg.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 want to just design and build,鈥 said Blandino. 鈥淚 want to be able to test it. You can design and build anything you want, but without testing, there鈥檚 no meaning.鈥
Blandino鈥檚 prosthetics research began with last spring鈥檚 capstone class, which developed a basic prosthetic, but with a rigid ankle that greatly limited the user鈥檚 mobility on inclines. This year鈥檚 cadets 鈥 Cody Ellis 鈥17, Spencer Jefferson 鈥17, and Philip Jewett 鈥17 鈥 were tasked with taking last year鈥檚 design and improving it.
The three cadets took separate directions to reach that goal. Ellis used RecurDyn, which is computer-aided engineering software, to produce a walking gait simulation 鈥 and he also did an honors thesis on his research. Jefferson and Jewitt, meanwhile, focused their efforts on making the design more dynamic for a greater range of motion.
鈥淭his year our purpose was to create a design that would allow the ankle to flex and create greater mobility on inclines,鈥 explained Jefferson. 鈥淚t鈥檚 definitely been a challenge, but it鈥檚 been a great project to work on.鈥
Jewett, meanwhile, said that he鈥檇 found that patience and the willingness to experiment were key in developing the flexible ankle.
鈥淵our initial ideas aren鈥檛 necessarily what come to fruition,鈥 he commented. 鈥淛ust knowing that 鈥榮imple is usually better鈥 applies.鈥
Simple is a word well used to describe this year鈥檚 model, as the primary building materials are PVC pipe and steel. 鈥淲e鈥檙e trying to approach it in a very quantitative way,鈥 said Blandino. 鈥淲e want to make a low-cost [prosthetic].鈥
Like Blandino, Jewett stressed that prosthetics, especially the higher-end ones, aren鈥檛 cheap.
鈥淧art of the goal of this is to come up with a low-cost prosthetic for third-world countries,鈥 he stated. 鈥淎 lot of times prosthetics will be thousands of dollars. Our test subject is looking at ones that cost $10,000.鈥
In the future, Blandino would like to focus research on improving the fit of the upper part of the prosthetic, where the amputee鈥檚 stump attaches.
鈥淵ou want to develop something that鈥檚 comfortable for the user.鈥
- Mary Price
-VMI-