Three-Dimensional Printed Passive Transtibial Prosthetics Leg: Design Process, Kinematics and Thermal Analysis

The common consensus is that prosthetic sockets are the foundation in determining the success of overall prosthetic leg fit and usability for amputees. The conventional process of fabricating the socket can be prone to error of shape capture and shape re-adjustment as it depends on the skill of the practitioners. Customized socket fabrication using additive manufacturing has found its way as a state-of-the-art solution for what is missing from the conventional fabrication method. The purpose of this study is to design a prosthetics leg socket through digital manufacturing process and to conduct kinematics and thermal assessment when an amputee subject wearing it. Three-dimensional (3D) scanner and computer-aided design (CAD) was used to collect the geometrical data and design the socket, respectively. For the 3D printing, Creality Ender 5 Plus was used to 3D print the socket. Vicon Motion Capture was employed in the study to gain rich gait data upon donning prosthetics to calculate kinematics joint angles. Medical thermography was done to gain before and after thermal mapping of the skin whilst donning prosthetics. From the result, it was found that temperature at the residuum limb is in acceptable range (25 until 34°C) whereas the kinematics joint angles show promising findings when subject donning the 3D printed prosthetics. The result obtained can be a baseline for further investigation on the potential of 3D printed prosthetics for transtibial amputation as compared to conventional prosthetics. The outcome of this research project may serve as informative guidance for future research by researchers and engineers to decide on the best prosthetic technique, thus providing patients with improved quality of life.