Application of Stereolithography in the Fabrication of Rehabilitation Aids

Free form fabrication methods have a great potential to significantly improve the design and manufacture of equipment for people with physical disabilities, such as quadriplegia through spinal cord injury, arthrogryposis, or cerebral palsy. Depending on the nature of the disability a device may need to be designed or adapted. A person with quadriplegia, for example, may benefit from an assistive device that maps existing head movements, into the movements of a spoon between a plate and his/her mouth. To be comfortable and effective a person Iuay need a headband that can connect to a suitable linkage. Stereolithography lends itself well to the fabrication of such one-of-akind devices. Since the fabrication process time is considerably less than conventional approaches a greater number of iterations can be performed during the design to arrive at the most compatible device for a particular disability. Some rehabilitation devices are fabricated to establish the viability and linlitations of this approach. This paper details the efforts underway to integrate stereolithography with the needs of rehabilitation engineering.