AUTOMATED FABRICATION OF MOBILITY AIDS - REVIEW OF THE AFMA PROCESS AND VA SEATTLE SHAPEMAKER SOFTWARE-DESIGN

Computer-aided design and manufacture of prosthetic and orthotic devic es has recently moved out of the laboratory into clinical use. The Dep artment of Veterans Affairs Rehabilitation Research and Development Se rvice has directed coordinated evaluation and development projects of this emerging technology under the name: Automated Fabrication of Mobi lity Aids or AFMA. One of the major results of the effort was the crea tion of mobility aid design software (ShapeMaker(TM)) concurrent with AFMA clinical testing of preexisting systems and development efforts. In order to provide a foundation for future discussions regarding AFMA , this paper provides a descriptive review of the AFMA processes and a review of the conceptual basis for the ShapeMaker AFMA software devel opment.