Portable embedded systems for prosthetic interface stress mapping of lower limbs amputees

Lower limbs prosthesis construction is mainly a handmade job, done by experienced prosthetists, which takes time with quite high costs. To speed-up the production of personalized prosthetic devices at low-cost we designed a wearable embedded system with a matrix of 32 force sensors which can map the stress of the contact points between lower limbs amputees and the prosthesis socket. Data are collected real-time during the patient's normal daily activities and permit to create a complete set of information to shape a 3D prosthetic interface tailored to the patient. The system is battery-powered and an aggressive power management permits adequate lifetime of the device with high accuracy of the multiple sensors acquisition.