Análisis estructural de una prótesis biónica de brazo para miembro superior

Abstract

Since 1960’s bionic arm prostheses have been developing around the world. These kinds of prostheses allow arm amputee do activities that they could not since the loss of their extremity. Enterprises like German Otto Bock and Ireland Touch Bionics, have been working for a long time in biomechanics and bioelectronics. These companies have been developing a huge variety of bionic extremities, which mitigate their disability and let amputee to restart their social and working lives. However, the price of each prosthesis is around USD$60,000.00, to high for people with low purchasing power. In Mexico, ProBionics, S.A. de C.V. has been developing bionic arm prostheses since 2006 and has been focused on helping people who had suffered work accidents and had lost an upper limb and also people with congenital malformations, that form part of the low-middle Mexican and Latin American class. ProBionics, S.A. de C.V. goal is create an effective system which allow patients recover mobility and functionality with their prostheses, at the same time that uses light materials and simple design, employing Mexican technology and more affordable than foreign prostheses. In September 2008, ProBionics, S.A. de C.V. received economic support from the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACYT) to develop the arm prosthesis and generate a commercial finished product. The development of this thesis focuses first of all in the analysis of the structural behavior of the original prosthesis to locate its weak points. Then a redesign is done for those components that need it. Finally the new design is analyzed for verifying its efficiency. These activities will let ProBionics, S.A. de C.V. to have a final design of the prosthesis for its production and further sale. This work is divided in three main parts in accordance with the functional subsystems of the prosthesis: Numerical structural analysis and redesign of hand-wrist module. Numerical structural analysis and redesign of forearm module. Numerical structural analysis and redesign of elbow-arm module. Manufacturing and testing the prototype are activities that ProBionics, S.A. de C.V. staff must do, because there are electronics and control stages that are not part of this thesis work. It is important to mention that this thesis work is PRIVATE because the author had signed a confidentiality document with ProBionics, S.A. de C.V. and he is committed not to showing confidential information of the enterprise. This is why some calculus and design details are not reported on this text. Also, figures that show confidential information have superimposed the legend: PROPIEDAD DE PROBIONICS. Numeric analyses were done at UPIITA-IPN because this academic unit owns SolidWorks® Premium 2010 academic licenses. ProBionics, S.A. de C.V. provided materials and machines for manufacturing and assembly prototype components.