FTL LABS CORP — Department of Defense SBIR Phase II: DHA17-008

Description

Traditionally, prosthetic legs are built by a prosthetist and then properly aligned while the patient is wearing the device. This process is iterative and time consuming for the patient and prosthetist, and still often leads to improper or non-optimal prosthesis alignment.Without a properly aligned prosthesis, one is unable to maximize performance outcomes and return a person to their former activity level which is needed to maintain physical fitness. Prosthetic performance depends critically on alignment; that is, the alignment of prosthetic components governs how loads are transferred to and from the residual limb, which directly affects how the user is supported and able to interact with the external world. FTL Labs Corporation's (FTL's) "Sensorized Prosthetic Alignment Read-Out (SPARO)", is a technology that will allow all prosthetists and medical providers to easily and inexpensively align prosthetic components to maximize function for the person with repeatable results. SPARO has been developed as a collaboration between product engineers, academic researchers in the field of assistive technologies, and prosthetists working in clinics around the country. Immediate feedback is presented to the prosthetist through a custom software GUI, providing load transfer and kinematics data between the residual limb and external environment with innovative analytics.