Design and Rapid Manufacturing of a customized foot orthosis: a first methodological study

A feasibility study was performed in order to demonstrate the benefits of designing and manufacturing a customized foot orthosis by means of digital technologies, such as Reverse Engineering (RE), Generative Design (GD) and Additive Manufacturing (AM). The aim of this work was to define the complete design-manufacturing process, starting from the 3D scanning of the human foot anatomy to the direct fabricating of the customized foot orthosis. Moreover, this first methodological study tries to combine a user-friendly semi-automatic modelling approach with the use of low-cost devices for the 3D laser scanning and the 3D printing processes. Finally, the result of this approach, based on digital technologies, was also compared with that achieved by means of conventional manual techniques.