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Characterisation of Bone Deformation Elicited by Artificial Muscles

Bone mass reduction is highly prevalent in astronauts, osteoporosis sufferers and elderly people, diminishing quality of life due to an increased risk of injury and the fear of causing a bone fracture. The rate of deterioration is increased for astronauts in the microgravity environment of space missions. Consequently, long duration spaceflight, such as for exploration beyond low-earth and lunar orbit, is not feasible because of the abiding implications on astronaut health. This thesis presents the design, construction and initial testing of a prototype test rack to simulate body movements and measure the resultant bone deformations. Physiologically accurate muscle forces of the lower limb were modelled using pneumatic actuators on a replica human tibia. These muscle forces were determined using finite element analysis (FEA) of data obtained from an in vivo study. This information can be used to determine how much each muscle in the lower limb contributes to bone deformation, and to develop effective methods to mitigate bone degradation for both space and terrestrial applications. The test rack was constructed and functionality experiments were conducted. The performance of the anatomical lower limb model was assessed and many structural test rack components operated as expected. A number of design modifications are proposed for use prior to further experiments, and for future iterations of the test rack. iii Acknowledgements