| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立成功大學 === 機械工程學系碩博士班 === 97 === The objective of the work reported in this thesis is to develop an interface system that will be used by a prosthetist to design prosthetic sockets easily. The CAD socket models will then be used to fabricate physical sockets on rapid prototyping (RP) machines.
In the traditional method of fabricating prosthetic sockets, it is necessary to use plaster bandages to acquire stump shape and a plaster stump model is then duplicated. The plaster stump model is modified until its shape meets the requirement based on a prosthetist’s expertise. The modified stump model can then be used to manufacture a prosthetic socket. The whole procedure is time-consuming, complicated and full of uncertainty. Introducing reverse engineering technology and computer-aid design software to design prosthetic sockets will not only improve the drawbacks of the plaster-based method but also provide socket models that can be used by finite element analysis software to evaluate the pressure distribution between the stump and a socket. And, the most important goal is using the socket models to fabricate RP sockets.
Because the procedure of using commercial a CAD system to design a prosthetic socket is tedious and complicated, this research developed a prototype interface system that allows a prosthetist easily designing a prosthetic socket. The proposed interface system for designing prosthetic sockets is developed by employing C++ programming language and OpenGL. The modification step is iteratively proceeding until the shape meets the prosthetist’s requirement. The modified stump surface is designated as the inner surface of a prosthetic socket. Using function of shelling, a shell-type of socket is then created. Exporting the socket model to an RP machine, a RP socket can be fabricated and is ready for trial use. A case study demonstrated that prosthetic sockets can be designed by using the prototype interface system and are fabricated by an FDM machine.
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