Biomechanical and biotribological approaches to understand the contact between human skin and bionic limbs

The skin is a complex composite consisting of epidermis, dermis and subcutaneous tissue, each with different mechanical and physiological properties. In amputees, the interface of a limb i.e between the skin and the prosthetic is crucial for the treatment of wounds or sores. Besides, viscoelastic skin is subjected to cyclic loading due to bodily movements and posture as well as to various environmental conditions inhibiting the recovery and resulting in time-consuming and challenging scenarios. Hence, there is a need to understand the biomechanical behaviour of skin such as deformation and stress distribution during the interaction with hard bionic materials.
The project aims to investigate the interaction between the bionic limbs and soft skin tissue using a dynamic modelling platform. This platform will be groundbreaking for finding a link between the individual skin cells to correlate the full effect in the tissue. Experiments to validate the model will be conducted at the Centre for Biological Engineering, Loughborough University in collaboration with The Leonardo Tribology Centre, University of Sheffield.