Study on Design and Additive Manufacturing of Customized Bionic Sports Sole for the Elderly

This paper proposed a rapid design and additive manufacturing method of customized bionic sports sole with high performance for the elderly. A parametric modeling software of human foot is developed, which can realize the rapid measurement and modeling of the elderly's foot and corresponding sole structure with specific characteristics. A self-developed material extrusion equipment is adopted to fabricate thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPU) material parts. The influence of extrusion temperature on the tensile properties of fabricated TPU parts is investigated, the hyperelastic model is applied to simulate the mechanical response of TPU, the sole shape is designed and optimized by finite element method (FEM). The leopard paw bionic sole pattern is designed and the antiskid performance is tested by friction experiment. Customized bionic sports sole made of TPU material is successfully manufactured by the self-developed material extrusion equipment. The results indicate that the personalized customization of sports sole for the elderly can be quickly designed and manufactured by the combination of parametric modeling software and material extrusion equipment.