KR102364669B1 - Prosthetic leg having starch suspension based viscoelasticity pad - Google Patents

Abstract

Disclosed is a prosthetic leg with a viscoelastic pad containing a starch suspension. The prosthetic leg with a viscoelastic pad containing a starch suspension, according to an embodiment of the present invention, is a prosthetic leg provided to be worn on a part of the body of a user. The prosthetic leg comprises: a foot part which comes into contact with the ground when the user wears the prosthetic leg; a support part formed to extend upward from the foot part; and a coupling part provided at an upper end of the support part and having a groove in the upper portion thereof, wherein a part of the human body is inserted into the groove. The viscoelastic pad is attached to the groove of the coupling part so as to absorb and relieve shock applied to a contact part that comes into contact with the part of the body of the user. The viscoelastic pad is provided to have a structure in which a sealing pad is filled with a viscoelastic material including a starch suspension.

Description

Prosthetic leg having starch suspension based viscoelasticity pad

The present invention relates to a prosthetic leg, and more particularly, to a prosthetic leg having a starch suspension viscoelastic pad.

In general, prosthetic feet are artificially made and attached to people who do not have feet or have difficulty walking. Because the weight is carried when walking, friction occurs on body parts that come into contact with the prosthetic foot, which can cause various skin diseases. Inefficient movement and muscle strength when walking It causes a lot of inconvenience to people due to loss, etc. Various prosthetic legs have been studied in order to improve these problems, but the conventional prosthetic legs still give users various inconveniences due to limitations in their structure or materials of contact parts with the body.

A limitation of the conventional prosthetic leg is that the viscoelastic material used for the prosthetic leg has a weaker role of supporting the user's body as the fluid property is greater. Conversely, if the properties of the solid are large, the impact applied to the user is increased or wearability is reduced, and the impact applied to the user's body part is concentrated to a specific part because it is not deformed to fit the user's body contact part. On the other hand, US Patent Publication No. US 2008/0147204 A1 (published on June 19, 2008) discloses an artificial socket (prosthetic socket).

The present invention is to provide a prosthetic leg having a starch suspension viscoelastic pad.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a prosthetic leg having a starch suspension viscoelastic pad, which solves the problem of layer separation of the starch suspension and enables the properties of the starch suspension to be maintained for a long period of time.

A prosthetic leg having a starch suspension viscoelastic pad according to an embodiment of the present invention is a prosthetic leg provided to be worn on a part of a user's body, and includes a foot that comes into contact with the ground while the user wears the prosthetic leg; a support portion extending upward from the foot portion; and a coupling part provided at the upper end of the support part and having a groove part into which the human body part is inserted, wherein the coupling part groove part absorbs and relieves an impact to a contact part in contact with a part of the user's body part. The pad is attached. The viscoelastic pad is provided in a structure in which the sealing pad is filled with a viscoelastic material including a starch suspension.

The viscoelastic material may be a material containing cornstarch suspension and gelatin in a weight ratio of 9: 1 to 7: 3.

The cornstarch suspension may be a material containing cornstarch and water in a weight ratio of 6:4 to 5:5.

The sealing pad may be provided in an air cap structure in which a plurality of air caps are arranged. The viscoelastic material may be filled in the plurality of air caps.

A prosthetic leg having a starch suspension viscoelastic pad according to an embodiment of the present invention includes: a piezoelectric element provided in the contact portion to generate electric energy by pressure applied by a part of the user's body; and a heating unit configured to generate heat by electric energy generated by the piezoelectric element to prevent layer separation between water and starch in the starch suspension.

The viscoelastic material may be provided as a material in which an iron component is dissolved in any one of starch and water. A prosthetic leg having a starch suspension viscoelastic pad according to an embodiment of the present invention includes an electromagnet device installed adjacent to the viscoelastic pad, and applying an electric signal to the electromagnet device to stir the starch suspension using the magnetism of the electromagnet device. It may further include a control unit.

In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, a prosthetic leg having a starch suspension viscoelastic pad is provided.

In addition, according to an embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a prosthetic leg having a starch suspension viscoelastic pad, which solves the problem of layer separation of the starch suspension and enables the properties of the starch suspension to be maintained for a long period of time.

1 is a view schematically showing a prosthetic leg having a starch suspension viscoelastic pad according to an embodiment of the present invention.
2 is an exemplary view of a viscoelastic pad constituting a prosthetic leg having a starch suspension viscoelastic pad according to an embodiment of the present invention.
3 is an exemplary view of a viscoelastic pad constituting a prosthetic leg having a starch suspension viscoelastic pad according to another embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. Embodiments of the present invention may be modified in various forms, and the scope of the present invention should not be construed as being limited to the following embodiments.

This example is provided to more completely explain the present invention to those of ordinary skill in the art. The configuration of the present invention for clarifying solutions to the problems to be solved by the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings based on a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

Advantages and features of the present invention and methods of achieving them will become apparent with reference to the embodiments described below in detail in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. However, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments disclosed below and may be implemented in various different forms.

Only the present embodiments are provided so that the disclosure of the present invention is complete, and to completely inform those of ordinary skill in the art to which the present invention belongs, the scope of the invention, the present invention is defined by the scope of the claims will only be

Like reference numerals refer to like elements throughout. For configurations well known in the art related to the present invention, detailed descriptions may be omitted so as not to obscure the gist of the present invention.

In the present specification, when a part 'includes' a certain component, it means that other components may be further included, rather than excluding other components, unless otherwise stated.

As used herein, '~ module, ~ unit, ~ system' is a unit that processes at least one function or operation, and may mean, for example, software, FPGA, or hardware component.

The functions provided by '~module, ~unit, ~system' may be performed separately by a plurality of components, or may be integrated with other additional components. '~ module, ~ unit, ~ system' in this specification is not necessarily limited to software or hardware.

'~module, ~unit, ~system' may be configured to reside in an addressable storage medium, or may be configured to regenerate one or more processors. Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

1 is a view schematically showing a prosthetic leg having a starch suspension viscoelastic pad according to an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 1 , a prosthetic leg having a starch suspension viscoelastic pad according to an embodiment of the present invention is a prosthetic leg provided so as to be wearable on a part of the user's body, and a foot part 130 that comes into contact with the ground while the user wears the prosthetic leg. ), a support part 120 formed to extend upward from the foot part 130, and a joint part 112 provided at the upper end of the support part 130 and rotatably coupled to the support part 120 in the lower part, and the human body It includes a coupling portion 110 having an upper portion of the groove portion 114 to be inserted.

Such a prosthetic leg may be provided as a silicone-based prosthetic leg. A viscoelastic pad 140 is attached to the groove portion 114 of the coupling portion 110 to absorb and relieve an impact on a contact portion that comes into contact with a part of the user's body. The viscoelastic pad is provided in a structure in which the sealing pad is filled with a viscoelastic material including a starch suspension.

The cornstarch suspension of the viscoelastic pad 140 exhibits liquid and solid properties at the same time, and serves to assist and support the user's human body and at the same time serve to buffer the impact. The viscoelastic pad 140 may be formed of one, but it is also possible to stack a plurality of pads 140 to adjust the height.

2 is an exemplary view of a viscoelastic pad constituting a prosthetic leg having a starch suspension viscoelastic pad according to an embodiment of the present invention. 1 and 2 , the sealing pads 142 and 144 of the viscoelastic pad 140 may be provided in an air cap structure in which a plurality of air caps 144 are arranged in a concave pad 142 . . The pad 142 may be provided in a shape similar to a substantially hemispherical shape. A central portion of the pad 142 may be opened.

The air cap structure of the viscoelastic pad 140 may serve to increase the degree of contact with the user's body contact surface and prevent the prosthetic leg from being separated from the user's body during prosthetic walking.

A viscoelastic material 146 comprising a starch suspension may be filled into the plurality of air caps 144 . As described above, the starch suspension may be a material containing cornstarch suspension and gelatin in a weight ratio of 9: 1 to 7: 3.

The prosthetic leg according to an embodiment of the present invention may further include a piezoelectric element 150 , a control unit 160 , and a heat generating unit 170 . The piezoelectric element 150 may be provided in the contact part of the coupling part 110 to generate electric energy by pressure applied by a part of the user's body. The piezoelectric element 150 may be disposed between the contact portion of the viscoelastic pad 150 and the coupling portion 110 . The piezoelectric element 150 may be provided as a piezoelectric element pad in which a plurality of piezoelectric elements are arranged, for example.

The control unit 160 may collect electrical energy generated from the piezoelectric element 150 and transmit it to the heating unit 170 to operate the heating unit 170 . The heating unit 170 may be implemented as a heating pad configured to generate heat by flowing a current to the heating wire.

Accordingly, the heat generating unit 170 generates heat by electric energy generated by the piezoelectric element 150 due to the pressure between the user's body and the prosthetic leg while the user is standing or walking while wearing the prosthetic leg, and water and starch in the starch suspension. It may play a role in preventing interlayer separation.

Accordingly, it is possible to prevent the separation of the cornstarch and water layers of the cornstarch suspension by accumulating energy by the pressure generated when the prosthetic leg user walks and generating heat with the stored energy.

3 is an exemplary view of a viscoelastic pad constituting a prosthetic leg having a starch suspension viscoelastic pad according to another embodiment of the present invention. 3, the prosthetic leg having the starch suspension viscoelastic pad according to the embodiment of the present invention is one or a plurality of electromagnet devices 180; 182, 184 installed adjacent to the viscoelastic pad 140, and an electromagnet device ( 180; 182, 184 may include a control unit 190 for stirring the starch suspension using the magnetism of the electromagnet device (180; 182, 184) by applying an electric signal.

According to the embodiment of Figure 3, the iron component contained in the starch of the starch suspension filled in the concave pad 142 by the magnetic field generated by the electromagnet device 180; 182, 184, or the iron component dissolved in water The movement induces agitation of the starch starch and water, thereby preventing the problem of layer separation between the starch starch and water. The control unit 190 may periodically operate the electromagnet device 180 (182, 184) according to a cycle set or input by the user to prevent the layer separation problem of the wooblec.

The electromagnet device 180 (182, 184) may be configured as a device that generates a magnetic field by the coil by flowing a current to the coil wound along the circumference of the pad 142. To this end, the control unit 190 may include a power supply for passing a current to the coil of the electromagnet device 180 (182, 184), and a control circuit for controlling the power supply.

The electromagnet device 180 (182, 184) may form a magnetic field in the vertical direction to resolve the separation of the starch starch and water. For example, when iron is dissolved in water, the iron may be guided to the lower portion by the electromagnet device 182 at the lower portion so that the water separated in the upper layer together with the iron may be mixed to the lower starch starch side. there is.

On the other hand, when iron is dissolved in starch starch, the iron is guided to the upper part by the electromagnet device 184 on the upper part, and the starch starch separated in the lower layer together with the iron is moved to the upper water side to be mixed with each other. You may.

In addition, by alternately repeating the lower electromagnet device 182 and the upper electromagnet device 184 of the electromagnet device 180; 182, 184 to generate a magnetic field, the iron can be repeatedly moved up and down, and thus Separated starch It is possible to solve the layer separation problem of ooblec by mixing the starch and water.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, it is possible to increase the wearability and stability of the prosthetic leg by inserting a pouch containing a starch suspension such as wooblek at the upper end of the prosthetic leg. Due to the viscoelastic pad like Wooblek, the prosthetic leg is normally maintained in a fluid state and is flexible, so that when the user wears the prosthesis, the adhesion with the human body is improved.

In addition, when a momentary shock is applied after the prosthetic leg is worn, it absorbs and relieves the shock to prevent injury and also exhibits a solid property, thus assisting the user's body and stably supporting the body.

In addition, since the shape of the viscoelastic pad is deformed to match the curvature of the user's body contact part when the prosthetic leg is worn, the impact applied to the user's body through the prosthetic leg is distributed over the entire area of the user's body contact part, thereby absorbing and alleviating shock. This can be further improved. In addition, by providing a sealing pad having an air cap structure, a viscoelastic material such as wooblec may be inserted into a plurality of air caps to more effectively hold body contact parts.

After a day or more, the starch and water are separated and the characteristics of ooblec gradually disappear. In an embodiment of the present invention, the layer separation problem of wooblec was improved by preparing a viscoelastic material by containing gelatin together with a cornstarch suspension. The cornstarch suspension containing gelatin maintained the properties of ooblec for more than 2 weeks. This phenomenon is expected to be due to the effect of gelatin preventing hydrolysis of ooblec.

The present inventor conducted an experiment to observe the layer separation time of ooblec while varying the weight ratio of the ooblec solution and gelatin to find an appropriate mixing ratio of the ooblec solution and gelatin to solve the problem of layer separation of the ooblec did.

As a result of the present inventor's experiment, when the ooblec solution and gelatin were contained in a ratio of 7: 3 to 9: 1 by weight, the time required to separate the layers of ooblec was the longest. It was confirmed that the layer separation of wooblec was delayed the most when contained.

Therefore, the viscoelastic material to be filled in the viscoelastic pad 140 is preferably formed by mixing cornstarch suspension and gelatin in a weight ratio of 9: 1 to 7: 3 . In the case of containing ooblec solution and gelatin in a weight ratio of about 8:2, it is only necessary to change the ooblec bag about once every two weeks.

In addition, the present inventors conducted an experiment to find the optimal mixing ratio of corn starch and water in the Wooblek solution. As a result of measuring the viscoelastic properties of wooblec while varying the weight ratio of corn starch and water, it was found that a cornstarch suspension in which corn starch and water were mixed in a weight ratio of 6: 4 to 5: 5, particularly corn starch and water, was mixed at 6: 5 The viscoelastic properties of the cornstarch suspension mixed in the weight ratio were the best.

According to the prosthetic leg having the starch suspension viscoelastic pad according to the embodiment of the present invention as described above, it is possible to increase the degree of adhesion with the user's body to increase the wearing comfort, and at the same time to provide more stability to people using the prosthetic leg when walking. It can also increase safety by buffering the impact on the body of the prosthetic user when he falls because he cannot focus.

This is due to the phenomenon that when a force is applied to the ooblec, the suspension, which was a liquid, instantaneously changes to a solid and absorbs the shock. Therefore, according to the embodiment of the present invention, even if the prosthetic leg is used for a long time, the leg is less strained, the contact surface and the adhesion is improved so that the leg and the prosthetic leg are not separated even when walking or rapid exercise, and the shock of the wooblek is alleviated By the effect, it is possible to prevent injury to the user.

In addition, by inserting a piezoelectric element to obtain energy through the piezoelectric effect, the energy accumulated by the piezoelectric element is converted into heat without using other energy to generate heat, thereby solving the layer separation phenomenon of Wooblek. As another example, it is possible to solve the layer separation problem of Wooblek by using an electromagnet or the like.

Some of the embodiments described above may be implemented as a hardware component, a software component, and/or a combination of a hardware component and a software component. For example, the apparatus, methods and components described in the embodiments may include, for example, a processor, a controller, an arithmetic logic unit (ALU), a digital signal processor, a microcomputer, a field programmable gate (FPGA). Array), a programmable logic unit (PLU), a microprocessor, or any other device capable of executing and responding to instructions, may be implemented using one or more general purpose or special purpose computers.

The processing device may run an operating system and one or more software applications running on the operating system. A processing device may also access, store, manipulate, process, and generate data in response to execution of the software. For convenience of understanding, a processing device is sometimes described as being used, but a person of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that the processing device includes a plurality of processing elements and/or a plurality of types of processing elements. It will be understood that this may include

For example, the processing device may include a plurality of processors or one processor and one controller. Other processing configurations are also possible, such as a Parallel Processor. The software may include a computer program, code, instructions, or a combination of one or more thereof, which configures a processing device to operate as desired or is independently or collectively processed You can command the device.

The software and/or data may be any kind of machine, component, physical device, virtual equipment, computer storage medium or device, to be interpreted by or provide instructions or data to the processing device. , or may be permanently or temporarily embody in a transmitted signal wave. The software may be distributed over networked computer systems and stored or executed in a distributed manner. Software and data may be stored in one or more computer-readable recording media.

The method according to the embodiment may be implemented in the form of program instructions that can be executed through various computer means and recorded in a computer-readable medium. The computer-readable medium may include program instructions, data files, data structures, etc. alone or in combination. The program instructions recorded on the medium may be specially designed and configured for the embodiment, or may be known and available to those skilled in the art of computer software.

Examples of the computer-readable recording medium include magnetic media such as hard disks, floppy disks and magnetic tapes, optical media such as CDROMs and DVDs, and ROM, RAM, and flash memory. Hardware devices specially configured to store and execute program instructions, such as, etc. are included. Examples of program instructions include not only machine language codes such as those generated by a compiler, but also high-level language codes that can be executed by a computer using an interpreter or the like. The hardware devices described above may be configured to operate as one or more software modules to perform the operations of the embodiments, and vice versa.

As described above, although the embodiments have been described with reference to the limited embodiments and drawings, various modifications and variations are possible from the above description by those skilled in the art. For example, the described techniques are performed in an order different from the described method, and/or the described components of the system, structure, apparatus, circuit, etc. are combined or combined in a different form than the described method, or other components Or substituted or substituted by equivalents may achieve an appropriate result. Therefore, other implementations, other embodiments, and equivalents to the claims are also within the scope of the following claims.

The above detailed description is illustrative of the present invention. In addition, the above description shows and describes preferred embodiments of the present invention, and the present invention can be used in various other combinations, modifications, and environments. That is, changes or modifications are possible within the scope of the concept of the invention disclosed herein, the scope equivalent to the written disclosure, and/or within the scope of skill or knowledge in the art.

The written embodiment describes the best state for implementing the technical idea of the present invention, and various changes required in specific application fields and uses of the present invention are possible. Accordingly, the detailed description of the present invention is not intended to limit the present invention to the disclosed embodiments. Also, the appended claims should be construed to include other embodiments.

110: coupling part
112: joint
114: home
120: support
130: foot
140: viscoelastic pad
142: pad
144: air cap
146: viscoelastic material
150: piezoelectric element
160: control unit
170: heating part
180, 182, 184: electromagnet device
190: control unit

Claims (6)

A prosthetic leg provided to be worn on a part of the user's body,
a foot portion that comes into contact with the ground while the user wears the prosthetic foot;
a support portion extending upward from the foot portion; and
A coupling part provided at the upper end of the support part and having a groove part in which the part of the human body is inserted therein;
A viscoelastic pad is attached to the groove portion of the coupling portion to absorb and relieve an impact on a contact portion that comes into contact with a part of the user's body,
The viscoelastic pad is provided in a structure in which the sealing pad is filled with a viscoelastic material including a starch suspension,
a piezoelectric element provided in the contact part to generate electric energy by pressure applied by a part of the user's body; and
A prosthetic leg having a starch suspension viscoelastic pad further comprising; a heating part that generates heat by electric energy generated by the piezoelectric element to prevent layer separation between water and starch in the starch suspension. The method according to claim 1,
The viscoelastic material is a material containing cornstarch suspension and gelatin in a weight ratio of 9: 1 to 7: 3, a prosthetic leg having a starch suspension viscoelastic pad. 3. The method according to claim 2,
The cornstarch suspension is a material containing cornstarch and water in a weight ratio of 6:4 to 5:5. The method according to claim 1,
The sealing pad is provided in an air cap structure in which a plurality of air caps are arranged,
and wherein the viscoelastic material is filled in the plurality of air caps. delete A prosthetic leg provided to be worn on a part of the user's body,
a foot portion that comes into contact with the ground while the user wears the prosthetic foot;
a support portion extending upward from the foot portion; and
A coupling part provided at the upper end of the support part and having a groove part in which the part of the human body is inserted therein;
A viscoelastic pad is attached to the groove portion of the coupling portion to absorb and relieve an impact on a contact portion that comes into contact with a part of the user's body,
The viscoelastic pad is provided in a structure in which the sealing pad is filled with a viscoelastic material including a starch suspension,
The viscoelastic material is provided as a material in which an iron component is dissolved in any one of starch starch and water,
An electromagnet device installed adjacent to the viscoelastic pad, and a control unit that applies an electric signal to the electromagnet device to agitate the starch suspension using the magnetism of the electromagnet device.

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