The activities presented in this paper, and developed by EnginSoft and The BioRobotics Institute Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna (SSSA), are parts of the WINSHOES Research Project co-funded by Regione Toscana. The WINSHOES Project aimed to introduce in the Tuscan footwear industry an innovative approach to the entire process of production, developing new methodologies that use technologies to date away from the shoe compartment.
The WINSHOES Project goal was the design of an integrated ICT system by developing a platform that uses CAS/CAD/CAE/CAM systems, and that enables the computerization of the designing process and the prototyping phase of shoes manufacturing. The aim of the project is to improve such processes that, to date, are still handcrafted.
The BioRobotics Institute SSSA developed and validated an experimental prototype of a sensorized sock specifically designed for the project, managed the sensorized sock and F -Scan system in the experimental tests, created the anatomy and anthropometry databases of the foot, the material database, the shoe database and finally the 3D CAD models of the foot.
The goal of EnginSoft was the development of a methodology to simulate, using a finite element code, the real phenomenon consisting of fit and loading the shoes in upright position. Starting from shoes CAD supplied by shoe factory, foot CAD and experimental information supplied by the SSSA, two virtual biomechanical models made of bones structure, soft tissue, and heeled shoe were created and validated, using the developed methodology.