Preliminary tests and validation protocols for an artificial multifunctional foot

This project consisted in the development of a multifunctional artificial foot with the ability to duplicate a human foot in a laboratory testing environment, with the purpose to evaluate and simulate footwear's performance under certain conditions. This foot is used as a laboratory prototype and it is multi-segmented, meaning that each foot section is controlled independently in terms of heat generation and sweating rate. Therefore it is possible to simulate more accurately the real behaviour of a human foot. The device produces thermal insulation values that will help to design footwear with better performance in terms of thermal comfort perception, replacing human volunteers in thermal comfort tests, which are very subjective. The prototype was tested and validated following international standard proceedings, and the outcome results indicate that thermal insulation values are within the range of expected values obtained in other foot thermal manikins or in tests carried out with human volunteers. This fact suggests that this lab prototype can be used as a reference in future thermal comfort evaluations.