Design, Analysis and Intelligent Control of a Tumor Prosthesis Extension Module

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Thesis Type: Doctorate

Institution Of The Thesis: Yildiz Technical University, Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences, Turkey

Approval Date: 2019

Thesis Language: Turkish

Student: Sıtkı KOCAOĞLU

Supervisor: Erhan Akdoğan

Open Archive Collection: AVESIS Open Access Collection

Abstract:

Nowadays, bone cancer patients using expandable prostheses have to go to the clinic frequently to determine the limb length and to perform the extension if necessary, as long as their age-based growth lasts. This situation brings along problems such as increased physician workload, the patient's exposure to radiation at each measurement, a larger rate of extension due to the long interval period between each extension and thus reducing patient comfort as well as making the daily life of the patient difficult. In this study, a biomechatronic tumor prosthesis which is able to determine the need for elongation by means of its hardware and intelligent control structure was developed to eliminate the aforementioned problems. A wearable sensor has been designed to determine the length difference between the patient's healthy limb and the prosthetic limb. The system components are manufactured as prototypes, an experimental setup was established and error mode and effects analysis was performed to determine the problems that may occur during the use of the system and the solution methods for them. The patient posture status was estimated by using machine learning in order to perform the extension process safely. Mechanical analysis of the designed prosthesis has been performed in the simulation environment, the prototype of the prosthesis has been produced, wireless communication and control system have been created and the performance of the system has been tested on the experimental setup. Limb length discrepancies of 1mm and above between the healthy limb and the limb with a prosthesis were able to be detected by the system, and prosthesis extension procedure was successfully performed against the maximum soft tissue resistance to be possibly encountered.