Adaptive Prosthetic Limbs Enhanced by Machine Learning and Soft Robotics

通过机器学习和软机器人技术增强的自适应假肢

• 批准号: 10032918
• 金额: $ 48.91万
• 依托单位: UNHINDR LTD
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Collaborative R&D
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=10032918
• 关键词: Adaptive; Prosthetic; Limbs; Enhanced; Machine

**"The Human body changes shape, but prosthetic sockets don't."**Our bodies are approximately 1.5 cm shorter in evenings, compared to mornings. Our feet and hands are larger in evenings. Most of us don't notice these changes because we wear flexible clothes.However, if you lose a leg, you must wear a prosthetic limb attached to your body with a rigid U-shaped structure called a _socket_. Sockets are made of hard plastics to carry the bodyweight and hand-made to ensure the best custom fit by following the stump's contour. However, 75% of amputees are unhappy because the stump changes shape every hour while their custom-made rigid sockets don't. This leads to constant skin rubbing causing painful bleeding wounds and ulcers. Replacing sockets upto 4 times annually for the rest of amputees' lives is currently the best solution costing £7.1billion of public money in the UK, EU and US each year(Excluding woundcare cost: £2.4billion in UK alone(UK-Government/APPG;2019)).Amputees need a confident and productive life despite their conditions. Therefore, Imperial College and Unhindr develop Roliner to make lives of millions independent. We proved the concept and manufacturability with a previous successful Innovate-UK project, and now we must develop an MVP(Minimum-Viable-Product).**What:** Roliner is a sleeve-like device worn on the stump before putting the prosthetic limb on.**How:** Roliner uses Artificial Intelligence(Machine Learning) to understand hourly/daily changes in the stump and adapts to them. Roliner reads real-time sensors' data between the stump and socket, learns amputees' comfort preferences via an app, and seamlessly and continuously adjust the fitting by inflating/deflating Roliner's micro-channels.**Impact:** Prosthesis fitting is the biggest barrier for amputees to maintain their daily activities. Amputees live dependent on fitting clinics. Therefore, within the first year of amputation, 1-in-6 amputees lose their jobs. 44.3% working age amputees are economically inactive, costing £4.89billion in productivity loss(PapworthTrust,2016). Roliner's Machine-Learning mimicking the clinical practice and providing able-bodied-like walking experience will reduce productivity loss, hospital dependency, and potentially save NHS £1.3billion p.a. in socket adjustments, £2.4billion in woundcare.Due to reduced quality-of life and activity, amputees rapidly lose muscles. The probability of an amputee walking with a prosthesis more than 500metres a day is 74% at age 35; while only 34% at age 60, becoming almost wheelchair-bound(Source:Geertzen,Jan et.al;2005-Claimed-walking-distance-of-lower-limb amputees.-Disability-and-rehabilitation). With first-of-its-kind seamless AI-adaptation, Roliner could increase walking performance x3 times, providing able-body-like walking experience. Reducing socket-induced wounds reduces risk of infection, increases mobility, which reduces muscle loss.

**“人体形状会改变，但假肢接受腔不会。”**与早晨相比，我们的身体在晚上大约短 1.5 厘米 我们的脚和手在晚上会变大，大多数人都没有注意到这些。改变是因为我们穿着灵活的衣服。但是，如果您失去了一条腿，则必须佩戴一个附着在身体上的假肢，该假肢具有称为“插座”的刚性 U 形结构。插座由硬塑料制成，用于承受体重和重量。手工制作，以确保符合残肢轮廓的最佳定制效果。然而，75% 的截肢者不满意，因为残肢每小时都会改变形状，而定制的刚性承窝却不会，这会导致皮肤不断摩擦，导致疼痛流血。在截肢者的余生中，每年更换 4 次接受腔是目前最好的解决方案，英国、欧盟和美国每年花费 71 亿英镑的公共资金（不包括伤口护理费用：仅在英国就花费了 24 亿英镑（英国政府/APPG；2019 年））。因此，帝国理工学院和 Unhinder 开发了 Roliner，以帮助数百万人过上独立的生活。我们证明了这一概念和可制造性。之前成功的 Innovate-UK 项目，现在我们必须开发 MVP（最小可行产品）。**内容：** Roliner 是一种戴在残肢上的袖状装置在安装假肢之前。 **如何：** Roliner 使用人工智能（机器学习）来了解残肢每小时/每天的变化并适应它们，Roliner 读取残肢和接受腔之间的实时传感器数据，进行学习。通过应用程序了解截肢者的舒适度偏好，并通过给 Roliner 的微通道充气/放气来无缝、连续地调整贴合度。 **影响：** 假肢贴合是截肢者佩戴假肢的最大障碍截肢者的日常活动依赖于截肢诊所，因此，六分之一的截肢者失去了工作，44.3% 的工作年龄截肢者没有经济活动，造成了 48.9 亿英镑的生产力损失（PapworthTrust， 2016）。Roliner 的机器学习模仿临床实践并提供像健全人一样的步行体验，这将减少生产力损失、医院依赖，并有可能减少。每年在接受腔调整方面节省 NHS 13 亿英镑，在伤口护理方面节省 24 亿英镑。由于生活质量和活动质量下降，截肢者在年龄时每天使用假肢行走超过 500 米的概率为 74%。 35 岁；而 60 岁时只有 34% 几乎坐轮椅（来源：Geertzen，Jan）等人；2005 年-声称下肢截肢者的行走距离。-残疾与康复）凭借首创的无缝 AI 适应，Roliner 可以将行走性能提高 3 倍，提供能够- 如同身体般的行走体验。减少插座引起的伤口可降低感染风险，增加活动能力，从而减少肌肉损失。