AUTOMATED SYSTEM FOR DETERMINING THE DEFORMATION FIELD OF A LOWER-LIMB RESIDUAL LIMB BASED ON MATRIX PROCESSING OF MEASUREMENT DATA

Abstract

The paper considers the problem of automated determination of the deformation field of a lower-limb residual limb based on contact measurements and matrix processing of experimental data. The relevance of the study is determined by the need to improve the accuracy of individual prosthesis design, since traditional methods for determining residual limb parameters mainly describe its geometric shape but do not fully account for the deformation response of tissues under local loading. An approach is proposed in which the residual limb surface is represented as a discrete set of contact points corresponding to the cells of a matrix measurement system. For each local loading case, a displacement vector of all contact points is formed, and the set of such vectors is combined into an experimental data matrix. After normalization by the applied pressure, this matrix is interpreted as a mutual influence matrix describing the spatially distributed deformation response of the surface. Based on the obtained matrix representation, a method for reconstructing the residual limb geometry and estimating local deformation characteristics is proposed. The developed approach can be used as a mathematical basis for creating automated residual limb analysis systems and for further design of individual prostheses.