Title
A Co-Design Method for the Additive Manufacturing of Customised Assistive Devices for Hand Pathologies
Abstract
Additive Manufacturing technologies are particularly suitable for developing highly customised products, even in rehabilitation and occupational therapy fields. Nowadays it is easy and cheap to design and produce such artefacts, although they require systematic approaches and standardized tests to validate their effectiveness. Therefore, this paper proposes a methodological approach for the application of Additive Manufacturing technologies to the codesign of assistive devices, focusing on rheumatoid or scleroderma patients. These patients present hand and finger disorders that limit simple everyday tasks, and need assistive devices to protect the damaged joints. The commercial assistive devices available on the market generally lack of customisation in dimensions and morphology, or their aspect is too stigmatizing In order to achieve a better correspondence between patients' needs and assistive devices, we propose to involve the patients in a co-design team, in order to directly transfer their desires and creativity in unconventional solutions. The assistive devices are parametrically modelled and virtually prototyped in order to assess their functionality and customisation, and then additively manufactured. Finally, their effectiveness is tested by patients by means of standardized assessment tests that generate useful feedback. The paper proposes a case study about an assistive device for daily living activities.
Year
DOI
Venue
2018
10.3233/jid-2018-0002
JOURNAL OF INTEGRATED DESIGN & PROCESS SCIENCE
Keywords
Field
DocType
Co-design,Additive Manufacturing technologies,Assistive device,Occupational therapy,Parametric modelling,Rheumatoid arthritis
Co-design,Computer science,Manufacturing engineering
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
22
1
1092-0617
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
0
0.34
0
Authors
4
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Francesco Gherardini100.34
Maria Teresa Mascia200.34
Valentina Bettelli300.34
Francesco Leali4112.71