COMPUTER AIDED ENGINEERING (CAE) APPROACH TO TOPOLOGICAL OPTIMIZATION OF A FRAME FOR A PATIENT-SPECIFIC HAND EXOSKELETON

Abstract

With the surprising growth rate of Additive Manufacturing (AM) technologies, which overcome the constraints of traditional manufacturing techniques, topological optimization has become one of the most powerful design tools. In fact, it allows achieving enhanced topological configurations capable, for instance, to reduce mass while preserving product function and structural behavior. In the last years, topological optimization has been applied with encouraging results in a large variety of fields, including the healthcare one. This work aims to demonstrate the effectiveness of topological optimization approaches applied to the design of patient-specific devices. More in detail, the work concerns with the development of an optimized supporting structure to at-tach an existing hand exoskeleton for patients who have lost or injured hand skills. The goal is minimizing the overall device mass assuring proper stiffness and strength, in order to increase device portability and obtain a more wear-comfortable device. The complete design workflow starting with the definition of the applied loads up to the optimization of the supporting structure is presented. The FE analysis performed on the resulting configuration confirm a deformation behavior comparable with the non-optimized solution, and with a mass reduction of 59%. The optimized geometry is easily achievable with additive manufacturing technologies. Keywords: Design for Additive Manufacturing; Topological Optimization; Hand Exoskeleton.