Smart Acetabular Trail With Embedded Photonic Sensor Arrays for Force and Contact Location Sensing

In this article, we introduce and demonstrate a smart acetabular trail with embedded photonic sensor arrays for force and contact location sensing. Finite element modeling is performed to study the strain distribution when an external force is loaded to the acetabular trail model, which is applied to guide strain sensor array routing. Then acetabular trail with sensor embedded channels is fabricated through polymer stereolithography (SLA) 3-D printing process. Intrinsic Fabry-Perot interferometer (IFPI) based optical fiber sensors are employed for in situ monitoring of local strain variation, thanks to their high spatial resolution. As a proof of concept, ten IFPI sensors are embedded for strain mapping. Experimental results demonstrate that localized strain change is captured by the IFPI spectra variation and loading force position can be estimated through the obtained strain distribution. With enhanced sensor robustness, strain distribution and contact location monitoring capability, this proposed smart acetabular trail could be attractive for intelligent medical applications, especially in total hip arthroplasty (THA).