A MIT engineer has developed a lightweight, prosthetic foot that can be tailored to each patient that will cost less than prosthetics on the market now.
After he was approached by Jaipur Foot, an artificial limbs manufacturer in India, Amos Winter, associate professor of mechanical engineering at MIT, said he realized there was no way to anticipate an amputee’s walking behavior just by looking at the mechanical design of a foot.
Currently, prosthetic are designed by testing the foot out on the amuptee. However, Winter said, given a person’s body weight and size, technicians can fine-tune the stiffness and geometry of the prosthetic to mimic able-bodied walking.
“That technician can weigh the person and maybe measure their leg length, and then get a foot prescribed to them that’s within 20 percent of what would be ideal. That’s tremendously valuable to a person rather than just slapping a foot on them, crossing your fingers, and hoping that it works,” Winter said.
He said this prototype is made out of nylon, making it cheaper to manufacture. The prosthetic will better mimic able-bodied walking, which Winter said is important because people with disabilities want to avoid stigmas in certain countries.
“Because if you look there’s still shunning that happens in a community. They may not be able to get a job or get a wife. So they want to look as life like as possible,” he said.
Currently, Italian based company, Vibram, is making a life-like covering for the prosthetic foot.
Winter said testing on the prosthetic foot will begin later this summer in India. He hopes it will be available to the public within the next two years.
