Customizable Cane with Adjustable Base and Force Sensor
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current walking assistance devices, such as canes, are underutilized due to improper technique, aesthetic concerns, and cumbersome design, failing to provide full benefits to patients with knee osteoarthritis, which limits their effectiveness in reducing knee joint reactive forces and pain.
Innovation Solution
A customizable cane system with adjustable base portion profile, shaft length, shaft angle, and return spring force, equipped with a force sensor, is designed to monitor and minimize the force applied by the user, optimizing the device configuration based on the user's body weight distribution to enhance comfort and usability.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a cane is designed with fixed configuration, then manufacturing is simple, but it cannot be customized to individual patient needs reducing effectiveness
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements adjustable components including variable shaft length, adjustable shaft angle, and configurable base portion profiles that can be modified to suit different patient needs. The return spring force can also be adjusted, transforming a static device into a dynamic, adaptable system that evolves with patient requirements.
Solution Approach 2:
The cane is divided into modular segments including the handle assembly, shaft portion, base portion, and return spring mechanism. Each component can be independently adjusted or replaced, allowing customized configuration while maintaining manufacturing simplicity through standardized modular units.
2Reliability
If cane force is increased to provide more support, then knee joint reactive forces are reduced more effectively, but user comfort decreases and improper technique increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs adjustable return spring force as a key parameter that can be customized for each patient. By optimizing the spring force parameter, the system achieves the right balance between providing sufficient knee joint support and maintaining user comfort during ambulation.
Solution Approach 2:
The force sensor provides real-time feedback on the force applied to the cane, enabling monitoring and optimization of the return spring force. This feedback mechanism ensures the cane provides appropriate support while preventing excessive force that could cause discomfort or improper technique.
3Reliability
If the cane is made more adjustable to customize force characteristics, then effectiveness is improved, but device complexity and manufacturing cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements adjustable parameters including shaft length, shaft angle, base portion profile, and return spring force. These parameters can be modified through standardized adjustment mechanisms that maintain manufacturing simplicity while enabling customized force characteristics for each patient.
Solution Approach 2:
The cane system is designed with universal adjustment mechanisms that can accommodate various patient requirements through a single platform. The modular design with standardized interfaces allows different configurations to be achieved without requiring multiple specialized manufacturing processes.
4Reliability
If force sensor monitoring is implemented to optimize cane configuration, then patient outcomes improve, but device complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The force sensor provides feedback on the force applied to the cane during use, enabling optimization of the return spring force and overall cane configuration. This feedback mechanism supports personalized customization while maintaining relatively simple system architecture through direct force measurement and control.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The customizable cane system reduces knee joint reactive forces, decreases pain, and increases functional ability by providing a biomechanical advantage, encouraging proper use and improving gait mechanics, thus delaying the need for knee replacement surgery.
Implementation Method 1
a return spring coupled between a rocker bottom foot and a handled shaft
Implementation Method 2
return spring force in a return spring coupled between a rocker bottom foot and a handled shaft
Implementation Method 3
a force sensor positioned so as to measure the force applied to the return spring
Data Source
AI summary
Walking assistance devices and systems for rehabilitation system for reducing the knee adduction moment in a user, reducing stress on the knee, and potentially slowing deterioration of the knee associated with osteoarthritis of the knee and delaying the need for knee replacement surgery. In one aspect the walking assistance device includes a handle or grip portion, a shaft portion, and a base portion having a rocker bottom which reduces the knee adduction moment on the stance leg of a user. In another aspect the walking assistance device includes one or more force sensors for measuring the force applied by a user at various points in their gait.