ENGINEERING DESIGN OF AN ADAPTIVE LEG PROSTHESIS USING BIOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES

The biomimetic design process is explored through a design case: An adaptive leg prosthesis. The aim is to investigate if the biomimetic design process can be carried out with a minimum of biological knowledge and without using advanced design methods. In the design case biomimetic design was successfully carried out using library search resulting in 14 biological analogies for the design problem ‘shape adaption’. It is proposed that search results are handled using special cards describing the biological phenomena and the functional principles.