Prosthesis Socket Design through Shape Optimization

Design and manufacturing of socket are difficult activities due to the requirements that this component has to fulfill. Digital models and virtual prototyping techniques have been integrated in the socket development process trying to attain radical improvements of outcomes. However, although these tools allow to decrease the use of physical prototypes and experimental tests on patient, socket shape optimization results still insufficiently supported. In this regard, the adoption of design optimization techniques represents an opportunity to address the recalled problem. Design Optimization is rather common in several engineering fields and Shape Optimization has been widely adopted as useful tool to assist designers in searching for optimal solutions dedicated to prosthetic systems. Starting from these premises, the paper describes an approach to design socket prosthesis, which is based on Shape Optimization. The functional and ergonomic requirements of socket are analyzed and subsequently translated into optimization drivers. Moreover, implementation and integration issues of the proposed approach within the socket development process are investigated. Eventually, an application to a case study is presented aimed at preliminarily verifying potentialities and applicability. The outcomes obtained from this experience are encouraging and suggest to deepen the investigation.