Investigation into the need for Additive Manufacturing personalisation of handheld assistive devices

As people become older, they are prone to suffer physical and cognitive deterioration due to diseases and the ageing process itself. These disabilities affect their daily activities but the usage of an assistive device may provide the necessary support and increase their quality of life. However, sometimes these products do not provide a solution to everybody, as they are standard versions offering the same characteristics to all users; for this reason, it is useful to think about the production of personalised options that could solve particular needs. The creation and built of tailored devices may have as a result a better match between the user and the product, improving their fit and performance; these characteristics can be achieved via additive manufacturing since this technology is able to produce cost-effective and complex organic forms adapted to a user.

This study has the aim of assessing the potential of additive manufacturing in the production of personalised assistive devices, evaluating whether it is worth or not use this technology to personalise assistive products.

Through a combination of literature searching and focus group sessions, a walking stick handle was identified as a suitable case study device which would have the potential to impact a high number of people across a range of illnesses associated with ageing.

This study has shown, via user trials, that an ergonomic shape as opposed to the more traditional “crook” style, was a preferred option because its form adapts better for the user’s hand, there is more support due to its wider surface and pressure is exerted over the whole hand; also, it could provide a more comfortable position for hand and wrist.

Most users also preferred some kind of additional texturing on the handle because they could provide a degree of roughness to the surface, causing an anti-slippery effect and providing a better grip, but the exact texture they preferred varied between users. This suggests that there may be a benefit to allowing users a choice of different textures at the point of purchase.

Personalisation of an ergonomic-shaped handle did not appear to provide a significant benefit, with participants generally preferring the standard shape. This suggests that (for the majority of people) the overall shape may have more of an influence on the user’s preference than any small changes to enable conformance to the individual.

However, further work is needed to define a suitable and accurate method of capturing user data in cases where personalisation may be more relevant, for example, where someone has a disability that affects their ability to grab the handle.