Bioinspired cane design and production using braiding technology

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  • SAKAMOTO Jiro
    Advanced Manufacturing Technology Institute, Kanazawa University
  • CHIHARA Takanori
    Institute for Frontier Science Initiative, Kanazawa University
  • AZUMA Tomonari
    Graduate School of Natural Science & Technology, Kanazawa University
  • KINARI Toshiyasu
    Advanced Manufacturing Technology Institute, Kanazawa University
  • KITAYAMA Satoshi
    Advanced Manufacturing Technology Institute, Kanazawa University
  • KIMIZU Mitsugu
    Department of Textile and Life, Industrial Research Institute of Ishikawa
  • HASEBE Hiroyuki
    Department of Textile and Life, Industrial Research Institute of Ishikawa
  • MORI Daisuke
    Department of Textile and Life, Industrial Research Institute of Ishikawa

Abstract

<p>Elderly people often use a cane to walk; it is an important part of their daily life. The cane must be made of a light weight material of high stiffness. In addition, stress relaxation on impact is required to make the cane easy to grasp. All these factors are affected by the shape design. Therefore, an effective shape design considering the stress relaxation on impact load and the weight of the cane is important. Traditionally, straight-type canes are widely used in the market. In this study, a bioinspired shape design methodology is proposed to produce canes. The basis vector method is used, and a multi-objective design optimization for minimizing the total volume and the maximum stress is performed. A sequential approximate optimization is then adopted to determine the Pareto optimal solutions. The superiority of the proposed method over the straight-type cane is confirmed through numerical results. The optimal cane shapes have more than 90% lower impact stress than the straight-type canes. Finally, a prototype of the optimized cane is produced using the braiding technology. Carbon fiber reinforced plastic is the selected cane material owing to its light weight and high stiffness.</p>

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