FURI | Spring 2018

Developing Prosthesis for Children with Disabilities to Participate in Sports

The main goal of the proposed project is to develop a comprehensive guide that summarizes the best materials to use for a prosthetic designed to facilitate specific sport-dependent gestures. To achieve this goal, existing prosthetics and the materials used in their development were investigated. The best sports prosthetics are mechanical and passively functional because of their exceptional resistance to impact. Materials used in prostheses include: metals, plastics, and fiber reinforcements. This information can be used to build a prototype prosthetic; the prosthetic can be improved by piloting an experiment. This guide will hopefully help child amputees participate in sports.