DISEÑO DE ORTESIS DE TOBILLO-PIE ARTICULADAS PERSONALIZADAS MEDIANTE HERRAMIENTAS DE INGENIERÍA INVERSA Y DISEÑO ASISTIDO POR ORDENADOR (DESIGN of CUSTOMIZED ARTICULATED ANKLE-FOOT ORTHOSES BY USING REVERSE ENGINEERING AND COMPUTER-AIDED DESIGN TOOLS)

In this study, a customized hinged ankle-foot orthosis (AFO) was de-signed by using reverse engineering and computer-aided design (CAD) tools.. For that, the following three steps were followed: first, obtain a digital replica of the foot, ankle and lower leg area to be covered by the AFO by using a 3D scan-ner; second, create the internal and external surfaces of the AFO in a reverse en-gineering software program; and third, create the design of the AFO in a CAD software program. These types of methods for creating AFOs are less labor in-tensive than traditional ones, and enable to create AFOs of different materials, in less time and with better fit and aesthetics. Keywords: Ankle-foot orthosis, customization, computer-aided design, reverse engineering, 3D scanner.