{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,28]],"date-time":"2026-05-28T02:32:31Z","timestamp":1779935551442,"version":"3.53.1"},"reference-count":50,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"12","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2019,6,20]],"date-time":"2019-06-20T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1560988800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100006520","name":"Politechnika Krakowska","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["The APC funded by the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["The APC funded by the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100006520","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Materials"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Typical artificial joints for humanoid robots use actual human body joints only as an inspiration. The load responses of these structures rarely match those of the corresponding joints, which is important when applying the robots in environments tailored to humans. In this study, we proposed a novel, automated method for designing substitutes for a human intervertebral joint. The substitutes were considered as two platforms, connected by a set of flexible links. Their structural and material parameters were obtained through optimization with a structured Genetic Algorithm, based on the reference angular stiffnesses. The proposed approach was tested in three numerical scenarios. In the first test, a mechanism with angular stiffnesses corresponded to the actual L4\u2013L5 intervertebral joint. Scenarios 2 and 3 featured mechanisms with geometry and structure comparable to the joint, but with custom stiffness profiles. The obtained results proved the effectiveness of the proposed method. It could be employed in the design of artificial joints for humanoid robots and orthotic structures for the human spine. As the approach is general, it could also be extended to different body joints.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ma12121982","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2019,6,20]],"date-time":"2019-06-20T10:49:59Z","timestamp":1561027799000},"page":"1982","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":6,"title":["Structural and Material Optimization for Automatic Synthesis of Spine-Segment Mechanisms for Humanoid Robots with Custom Stiffness Profiles"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"12","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7816-5193","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Adam","family":"Ciszkiewicz","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Applied Mechanics, Cracow University of Technology, 31-155 Krak\u00f3w, Poland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Grzegorz","family":"Milewski","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Applied Mechanics, Cracow University of Technology, 31-155 Krak\u00f3w, Poland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2019,6,20]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"211","DOI":"10.1007\/BF02115239","article-title":"A Ligaments of the lumbar spine: A review","volume":"10","author":"Behrsin","year":"1988","journal-title":"Surg. 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