Smart Design of customized hip prostheses in additive manufacturing using numerical and experimental methodologies combined with the use of a markerless motion capture algorithm and a parametric multibody system of a human subject

The present PhD thesis is the collection of three years of research activity in the biomechanical field. The thesis aimed to achieve a Smart Design method that allows the customization of hip prostheses by the knowledge of human dynamics. This procedure is a closed loop algorithm where the main activity evaluated human handling by the motion capture Markerless. After the dynamic acquisition, the algorithm optimizes the shape of the prosthesis based on the loads acting on the hip. Motion Capture was applied to define the humans kinematic. A real-time multi-person human pose detection library that detects the human body was used to acquire the human pose. Multibody analysis was carried out to define what were the load acting on the hip during the motion. A parametric model of the human subject was created to evaluate the different load conditions Finite element simulations were carried out to apply the shape optimization and then the Lattice optimization as approach to customize the prosthesis. Several research perspectives have been opened by this thesis, that the author would pursue in the future. The thesis is divided into two parts. Technical notions in the biomechanical field characterize the first part. Topics underlying multibody and fem systems are covered, as well as 3d printing technologies and their applications in the medical field. Finally, the medical terminology used for defining the joints of the human body, the references taken into consideration and the current systems for capturing the pose of a subject are described. On the contrary, the second part of the document presents the activity carried out in the three years of the doctorate, focusing on the steps followed for creating the smart algorithm for optimizing the hip prosthesis. At the end of the thesis a list of publication by the author is presented.