A KNOWLEDGE-BASED DESIGN PROCESS FOR CUSTOM MADE INSOLES
Year: 2015
Editor: Christian Weber, Stephan Husung, Gaetano Cascini, Marco Cantamessa, Dorian Marjanovic, Monica Bordegoni
Author: Marinelli, Paola; Mandolini, Marco; Germani, Michele
Series: ICED
Institution: Università Politecnica delle Marche, Italy
Section: Design for Life
Page(s): 371-380
ISBN: 978-1-904670-64-3
ISSN: 2220-4334
Abstract
The Custom Made Insoles (CMI) context is characterized by a lot of software tools mainly used by skilled technicians of manufacturing companies. It is missing a tool to support the prescription of a CMI, mainly oriented to the podiatrists, but that could be used, at the same time, by customers, for self-monitoring activities, and by controllers to monitor the work of podiatrists. The paper aims to illustrate an innovative design process to prescribe a CMI, by using a knowledge-based web application: the prescription is based on configuration rules and templates, that provides to the clinicians a set of insole geometries and materials (knowledge-based approach). The proposed web platform Insole Designer is fully integrated with the most common monitoring devices (3D scanners and baropodometric platforms), 3D modelling software, and interactive shoes catalogues. The main output is the order (XML file) of the customised insole, used by an insole manufacturing company to produce the CMI. The validation is an ongoing activity, even if preliminary results are available. Italian podiatrists have been involved to evaluate each software module giving a score in a 3-point scale.
Keywords: Biomedical Design, Design Process, Insole Design, Custom Made Insole