In lumbar disc herniation a possible functional problem in the ambulation is the Foot-drop syndrome caused by radicular nerve pinching. This causes a dramatic loss in gait cycle efficiency. In the rehabilitation process patients may benefit from wearing a foot orthosis that prevents them from falling and secondary injuries. Evidence in the literature suggests the important correlation between the optimal match of the forces produced during human gait and the rigidity of the constructive materials. The inherent rigidity of the materials plays an important role in determining its biomechanical functions. The paper proposes an experimental and numerical characterization of 3D printed ABS and PLA specimens using a universal traction-compression testing machine and a finite element method numerical simulation.

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This paper describes the implementation and experimental validation of a new 3D miniaturized inertial navigator developed for human indoor and outdoor monitoring applications. Accuracy is a major concern, especially during GPS outages and indoor applications. In order to increase the inertial navigation system (INS) standalone operation period with acceptable accuracy during the GPS absence, signals received from sensors are filtered for reducing positioning errors. For validation, data achieved from the proposed navigator was compared with data achieved from a GPS/INS integrated navigator, both devices being used as remote systems. Unlike in our previous research, the case of the bi-dimensional model, when we managed to develop an optimizing tuning method for achieving the optimum level of decomposition of the Wavelet filter for data achieved from two channels, the attitude channel and the position channel, but not simultaneously, we are currently extending our research aiming to tune simultaneously data achieved from six detection channels, three accelerometers and three gyros.