Section: Partnerships and Cooperations

Regional Initiatives

Project Orthosis4D (2019-2022)

• Acronym: Orthosis4D.

• Title: Passive and active 3D printed orthosis: modeling, simulation and applications.

• Duration: 2019-2022.

• Funding: Lorraine Université d’Excellence.

• Coordinator: Sylvain Lefebvre.

• Participants: SylvainLefebvre, ThibaultTricard, Pierre-AlexandreHugron, Jean-BaptisteAustruy

• Other partners: IJL, LRGP, ERPI, IRR and Nancy CHU

• Abstract: The project considers the creation of flexible plates with controlled elasticity for use in medical applications (orthoses, insoles). It exemplifies our approach of doing focused collaborations around application domains of our research, to ensure that our techniques answer actual practical challenges and maximize the chances that they are deployed in the near future. On our side the project funds a PhD student, Thibault Tricard, who started in October 2018, a project manager, Jean-Baptiste Austruy, who started in May 2019 and a design engineer, Pierre-Alexandre Hugron, who started in April 2019.

  The project resulted in several publications this year [17], [11], [14]. We are also actively working with Bernhard Thomaszewski (University of Montréal) and Mélina Skouras (Inria Grenoble) within the scope of this project.

  Pierre-Alexandre Hugron started to interact with the medical partners, following the manufacturing process of orthopedic insoles at the IRR Louis Pierquin as well as producing and discussing 3D printed samples with practitioners to better understand their expectations and requirements. In particular, extensive tests have been conducted on the fabrication of different structures and density samples to mimic the current materials of insoles. Some of these samples are currently reviewed by the CHRU. These tests have resulted in an optimization of our 3D printing processes for a better accuracy and speed.