P-16

Due to the increase of life expectancy, the number of elderly people with mild to moderate disability increases as well. Furthermore, younger and more vital people can also have different degrees of mobility impairment; think of congenital or chronical conditions that can lead to mobility impairment, as well as the result of an injury.

There are a variety of different assistive devices, such as exoskeletons, to help people with limitations in independent movement of their legs. These assistive aids, currently available, are bulky, fairly inflexible and impractical in daily use. Moreover, these exoskeletons are very expensive and do not encourage or support the activation of the legs, since they completely take over their function.

As part of a wearable, intelligent soft clothing system, named XoSoft, a soft knee brace is developed. The knee brace prevents hyperextension and gives lateral support to the knee joint. The passive support of the knee brace is achieved by locally stiffening the garment with fiber reinforced composite tapes directly onto the garment.

The knee brace is designed patient specific in a highly automated manner, starting with a 3D scan of the knee. From this CAD file, a model of the patient’s knee is developed and 3D printed, serving as mold for the brace. The 3D surfaces are extracted from the same CAD file and converted into a 2D pattern, which is used for laser cutting the fabric for the brace. The mold is placed in a turning table after which the composite tapes are 3D printed onto the garment with the use of a robotic arm.