Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

hi, I want to disgn a prosthetic skating leg with mucle adaptation, and a bending nee joint, but I do not know what approach I should take to get started... I have never done an engineering project before. If you have any websites or books that could help please let me know. also do you think for this project it could first be a disgn, then the next be a prototype.. or should I dighn and make a prototype all in this project, and then next work on it more?

Hi,

A good place to start your research is this Wikipedia article on prosthetic limbs. This article has lots of references and inks which can be used to explore further:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosthesis

A huge problem in this field is the high cost of making prosthetics. Looking for lower cost methods of making them is a huge opportunity. You may want to explore these websites:

http://openprosthetics.org/

http://www.instructables.com/group/openprosthetics/

http://openprosthetics.wikispot.org/

I suspect to make reasonable progress on this project you will quickly need to narrow the scope of your investigation. For example, to make a full above the knee leg prosthesis you will have to solve design problems of replacing the knee, the ankle, and the foot.. It might be better to focus on only one joint (like the ankle or the knee) if you have to build a working model for the project.

You may also want to learn to search and read US Patents. To get a patent you must teach others with ordinary skill in the art in question how to build & use your idea so each patent has a section that is supposed to teach you how to make the idea work and to describe and cite other related patents. You can search and read patents for free at the USPatent Office website. Here is a link to the search engine for the patent office:

http://appft.uspto.gov/netahtml/PTO/search-bool.html

If you do a search on leg prosthesis you will get a long list of recent patents, and by selecting one of interest you can read and see images of the drawings and published patent pages, though you may have to install some free software to see the images..

I hope this is enough to get you started. This sounds like a very interesting, valuable and difficult project. I wish you every possible success with it!

Best regards,

Barrett L Tomlinson

This is a very aggressive project, especially for someone who has never done an engineering project before.

Barrett has given you some excellent advice on places to look for information. I'd like to suggest you check out another Wikipedia site. It's http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_product_development

This will give you a better understanding of how to think about your project like an engineer would.

Good luck, and have fun.