Customize extended artificial lower-limbs for dancers by personal data with six-axis 3D printing technology
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Nottingham
Department Name: School of Computer Science
Abstract
The emergence of additive manufacturing technologies such as 3D printing raises the possibility of producing personalized wearable limbs that are tailored to fit the bodies of individuals. In parallel, the spread of lightweight cameras and computer vision techniques together with other ubiquitous sensors and ever-smaller wifi- enabled computing platforms suggest that future prosthetics could behave more smartly, for example adapting their gripping mechanisms to specific objects that they can see. This PhD will adopt a user-centred approach to the design of future prosthetics, seeking to understand how users actually engage with the everyday world, especially the many everyday challenges that they must overcome, and then reflecting these in the design of new prosthetics that combine additive manufacturing, computer vision and possibly other technologies.
Planned Impact
We intend the Horizon CDT to be the place where partners come to find their future employees and to engage with the opportunities and challenges of digital identity and personal data. The key beneficiaries of our research will be:
- Commercial private sector companies that will engage with our CDT students during their research and/or employ them after graduation. Our partners include companies developing digital identity technologies as well as user companies across a range of sectors (consumer goods, entertainment, transportation, energy and others).
- Public sector and third sector organisations that are concerned with the use of digital identities to support civil society including broadcasters, healthcare providers and campaign groups.
- The public whose personal data forms the focus of their research and who will ultimately use and come to depend upon digital identities.
- Research communities spanning computer science, engineering, psychology, sociology, business and humanities.
These will benefit in various ways.
- Commercial, public and third sector companies will benefit from being able to recruit from a pool of talented PhD graduates who bring an in-depth understanding of digital identity and a proven ability to work in interdisciplinary teams. They will also benefit from being able to participate in co-creation of PhD research to ensure focus on relevant challenges and be able to exploit results of this PhD research.
- The public will benefit through a greater understanding of the opportunities and challenges of digital identity.
- Research communities will benefit by opening up promising new interdisciplinary fields.
Our Impact activities will be driven by Professor Derek McAuley, the Director of Horizon, who has a track record of establishing industry labs, spinning our companies and who is currently acting CIO of the TSB funded Connected Digital Economy Hub. Key activities will be:
- All Horizon PhDs will be carried out in collaboration with an external partner who will be involved in drawing up the initial topic, recruiting students, shaping the PhD proposal, supervision, and hosting at least one internship
- We will continue to organise knowledge exchange events within Horizon that are open to our network of over 100 external partners, including our annual Horizon Research Conference.
- We will encourage the release of applications, open source software, and open datasets wherever collaboration agreements allow.
- We will actively encourage our students to spin-out new ventures, including providing seedcorn funding through Horizon.
- We will engage our students with our two partner catapults, the Connected Digital Economy Catapult and the Satellite Applications Catapult.
- We will actively encourage industry visits through guest lectures on our "Broadening Horizons" core taught programme.
- We will also encourage companies to define, steer and sponsor the first year interdisciplinary team projects.
- Our students will complete a module on Public and External Engagement and are encouraged to engage in public events and exhibitions.
- Horizon's journalist-in-residence will help expose students research to the wider world through regular blogposts, while the University's marketing and communications team will help them develop press releases.
- We will provide training in research publication as part of the Professional Skills module and mentor publications through the Practice Led Project and the annual writing retreat (where students present and critique draft papers).
These impact activities will be supported by a professional online presence with posters, demos and podcasts made available through our website and associated YouTube channel and twitter feed, and with individual PhD profiles being posted on our own site and on external networking portals such as LinkedIn and ResearchGate.
- Commercial private sector companies that will engage with our CDT students during their research and/or employ them after graduation. Our partners include companies developing digital identity technologies as well as user companies across a range of sectors (consumer goods, entertainment, transportation, energy and others).
- Public sector and third sector organisations that are concerned with the use of digital identities to support civil society including broadcasters, healthcare providers and campaign groups.
- The public whose personal data forms the focus of their research and who will ultimately use and come to depend upon digital identities.
- Research communities spanning computer science, engineering, psychology, sociology, business and humanities.
These will benefit in various ways.
- Commercial, public and third sector companies will benefit from being able to recruit from a pool of talented PhD graduates who bring an in-depth understanding of digital identity and a proven ability to work in interdisciplinary teams. They will also benefit from being able to participate in co-creation of PhD research to ensure focus on relevant challenges and be able to exploit results of this PhD research.
- The public will benefit through a greater understanding of the opportunities and challenges of digital identity.
- Research communities will benefit by opening up promising new interdisciplinary fields.
Our Impact activities will be driven by Professor Derek McAuley, the Director of Horizon, who has a track record of establishing industry labs, spinning our companies and who is currently acting CIO of the TSB funded Connected Digital Economy Hub. Key activities will be:
- All Horizon PhDs will be carried out in collaboration with an external partner who will be involved in drawing up the initial topic, recruiting students, shaping the PhD proposal, supervision, and hosting at least one internship
- We will continue to organise knowledge exchange events within Horizon that are open to our network of over 100 external partners, including our annual Horizon Research Conference.
- We will encourage the release of applications, open source software, and open datasets wherever collaboration agreements allow.
- We will actively encourage our students to spin-out new ventures, including providing seedcorn funding through Horizon.
- We will engage our students with our two partner catapults, the Connected Digital Economy Catapult and the Satellite Applications Catapult.
- We will actively encourage industry visits through guest lectures on our "Broadening Horizons" core taught programme.
- We will also encourage companies to define, steer and sponsor the first year interdisciplinary team projects.
- Our students will complete a module on Public and External Engagement and are encouraged to engage in public events and exhibitions.
- Horizon's journalist-in-residence will help expose students research to the wider world through regular blogposts, while the University's marketing and communications team will help them develop press releases.
- We will provide training in research publication as part of the Professional Skills module and mentor publications through the Practice Led Project and the annual writing retreat (where students present and critique draft papers).
These impact activities will be supported by a professional online presence with posters, demos and podcasts made available through our website and associated YouTube channel and twitter feed, and with individual PhD profiles being posted on our own site and on external networking portals such as LinkedIn and ResearchGate.
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
| Steve Benford (Primary Supervisor) | |
| Feng Zhou (Student) |
| Description | 1, Aesthetic design and appearance: Background: 01, According to sufficient reference, it is belief that the aesthetics of prosthetics can influence the psychological wellbeing of lower-limb amputees, and we believe that this principle should be accounted for in prosthetic design. 02, Assessment of aesthetic design: According to the principle of Uncanny Valley, the prostheses with medium level of human likeness and personal identity are always with high visual attractiveness. 03, The field of Emotional Design shows that people are likely to accept and make use of products that enhance their own positive emotions (Coates, 2003; Norman, 2004) and that these emotions might arise differently accord to the peculiarities of each person. To sum up, the key question on aesthetic design of prosthesis is how to customize aesthetic designs with medium human likeness for each individual. Challenge: Aesthetic customization of prosthesis for each individual takes much effort of designers, and there is limited number of them. Outcomes on aesthetic design: 01, I developed algorithm to generate aesthetic patterns which would be applied to dancers' prosthesis, in order to automatically customize very unique and specific aesthetic pattern, according individual's taste. This process could be done by dancers without help from professional designers. 02, Rather than traditional designs are achieved by professional designers, with the help of pen or software, every dancer could be designer and their digitalization of dancing motion would be their designing tool as pen or software to professional designers. I have digitalized several of ten basic dancing principles from Sarah Whatley's research, and applied to my algorithm. 03, One study with disable dancers has been run to test the algorithm, and received positive feedback. 2, Manufacturing: Background: 01, It is agreed by most prosthetists that weight of prosthetic devices should be as light as possible, once the requirements of the safest, efficient and most functional componentry possible are matched. There are also sufficient references to support. 02, Considering the balance of weight and strength, fiber reinforced high performance polymer e.g. carbon fiber reinforced PEEK are potential materials. The most common 3D printing technology for fiber reinforced high performance polymer is FDM. 03, There is mechanical properties' limitation of 3D printed objects by FDM, due to its weakness on connections between layers. Objects even printed by FDM with fiber reinforced high performance plastics are still quite weak, under a force pushing in the opposite direction of the direction these layers have been printed, or a shear force parallel with printed layers. 04, There is usually a contradiction between free aesthetic design and structure design with consideration of mechanical properties. Outcomes on manufacturing: 01, Developed algorithm to control 6-axis industrial robotic arm as 6-axis 3D printer, in order to conquer the limitation on traditional FMD printing logic. 02, Developed hardware-3D printing extruder with three head for different materials or different resolution printing. 03, Initial printing test has successfully been done, and waiting for robotic arm with higher precision. 3, Participants: my project is collaborated by disable dancers, software engineer, product designers and engineers. |
| Exploitation Route | 1, Automatic design algorithm is potential to customize aesthetic patterns applied on various fields and products. 2, Digitalization of 10 basic dancing principle is potential to contribute to HCI research with dancers. 3, 3D printing by 6-axis with multiple printing heads is potential to develp new printing logic and fiber reinforced printing technology. |
| Sectors | Healthcare,Manufacturing, including Industrial Biotechology,Other |