Summary

The elbow is often ignored by professionals who idealise and simplify its motion.  It is advantageous to commence research on the elbow because of the simplicity in degrees of freedom and complexity during rotation.  Modelling the articulations of the human elbow joint serves as the initial step in reproducing the human upper limb.  This project lays the foundation by creating precise physical and virtual models.  Understanding the articulations offers insight into function and movement.  Current virtual modelling techniques are lacking in harmonisation and congruence.  Virtual models must adhere to acceptable formats and be easily importable.  Physical models must be created with simplicity and allow variety in manufacturing methods.  Structural testing can then be performed on the models with relative ease.  This project aims to produce accurate models that can be manipulated within their respective environments through:

• Obtaining functional DICOM images of the entire elbow joint.
• Converting DICOM files into physical models through Rapid Prototyping.
• Importing VAKHUM (Virtual Animation of the Kinematics of the Human) models into a constrained engineering environment.
• Importing human elbow bones into a constrained engineering environment.
• Creating idealised virtual models of the elbow joint.
• Assembling the idealised and imported virtual models.
• Gaining insight into the intramedullary canal of the elbow bones.
• Investigating the feasibility of applying motion in the constrained environment.
• Obtaining functional data on motion tracking of human and cadaveric elbow joint.