Benjamin Tham - Prosthetic Energy Return Knee

Prosthetic Energy Return Knee

View Report Appendix I Appendix J Appendix K

Objective

To design a more affordable prosthesis prototype that provides the necessary stability to traverse a variety of terrain and normalize amputees’ gait.
Integrate foot sensors from previous years design into the knee prosthetic to allow for more compatibility between prosthetic feet.

Contributions

Project Management

My primary role was ensuring that the team had the necessary tools and equipment to met all of the deliverable within the deadlines, that the project stayed within budged. One such tool that I used was a GHANT chart to keep track of all the project tasks, deliverables, and deadlines. I also attended events to create publicity for our project and established connections with reliable local manufacturers with short lead times.

CAD Models/ FEA Analysis

I worked alongside the design team to create assembly CAD models and perform FEA analysis on various high load bearing parts specifically the locking mechanisms. Free body diagrams where the part experience the highest potential loading were drawn out and calculated in order to determine the necessary magnitude and direction of force vectors. From these analysis, I was able to determine the required material properties and select what the materials for each part that would meet the Factor of Safety requirement for the project. The program that I used to run these simulations was SolidWorks.

Quantitative Test Development

I worked alongside the development team to design a testing device that could simulate and allow for quantification of the ability for the prosthetic to traverse uneven terrain. The designed testing device is a rubber mat that has areas where the tester could place a number of Botts' dots to either simulate a high density of uneven terrain or a low density of uneven terrain.

COVID 19 - Unforeseen Planning

Midway through March 2020, unfortunately due to Covid 19, the university campus was evacuated and the team was displaced between 3 different states: Texas, California, and Michigan. This created a 2 week setback for the team as the university halted all work on projects until further notice. During these 2 weeks, I reviewed and crashed tasks in our project schedule taking into consideration the time it would take for shipping, manufacturing and testing the device. Additionally, I organized the logistics of shipping of the unfinished prototype and the necessary testing equipment from the university lab so that the team members would have the necessary equipment ready when we we given the green light to continue the projects. Once we were given the go ahead from the university to continue working on the projects coordinated online meetings between the 3 different time zones so that the team could discuss the project progress.

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