HexaSpine: Biofidelic Measurement and Reconstruction of Human Cervical Spine Motion by Active and Passive Mechanisms

• Applicant: Professor Dr.-Ing. Andrés Kecskeméthy
• Subject Area: Mechanics
• Term: from 2003 to 2015
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 5409164

In the reduction of medical costs, the improvement of human disease diagnosis and therapies, the developement of new techniques for injury prevention measures, and many other fields related to human life, biomechanics is playing an incrasingly important role. Hereby, the human spine is given particular attention due to its frequent involvement in accident-induced injuries and almost epidemic appearance in common diseases such as low back pain. In this setting, reconstruction of inter-vertebral motion, although basically understood, still poses many open problems. The goal of the present project is to bring together methods from mechanism theory and mechatronics to design, build and validate physical surrogate mechanisms for biofidelic reproduction of cervical spine motion and loads under anatomic conditions. The mechanism consists of a six-legged parallel platform comprising either numerically controlled fluid-muscles in the active case or piecewise linear springs with end stops in the passive case. Due to their biofidelic load-motion behaviour, the surrogate mechanisms can be employed (a) to assess effects of spinal therapeutic or surgical treatment prior to its application to the patient, (b) for reproducible, accurate and dynamic in vitro measurement of biological parameters under controlled motion/load conditions and (c) as a neck component for crash test dummies.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Participating Person: Professor Dr. Andreas Müller