Development of a Novel Handheld Device for Active Compensation of Physiological Tremor

In microsurgery, the human hand imposes certain limitations in accurately positioning the tip of a device such as scalpel. Any errors in the motion of the hand make microsurgical procedures difficult and involuntary motions such as hand tremors can make some procedures significantly difficult to perform. This is particularly true in the case of vitreoretinal microsurgery. The most familiar source of involuntary motion is physiological tremor. Real-time compensation of tremor is, therefore, necessary to assist surgeons to precisely position and manipulate the tool-tip to accurately perform a microsurgery. In this thesis, a novel handheld device (AID) is described for compensation of physiological tremor in the hand. MEMS-based accelerometers and gyroscopes have been used for sensing the motion of the hand in six degrees of freedom (DOF). An augmented state complementary Kalman filter is used to calculate 2 DOF orientation. An adaptive filtering algorithm, band-limited Multiple Fourier linear combiner (BMFLC), is used to calculate the tremor component in the hand in real-time. Ionic Polymer Metallic Composites (IPMCs) have been used as actuators for deflecting the tool-tip to compensate for the tremor

Soft Biomimetic Finger with Tactile Sensing and Sensory Feedback Capabilities

The compliant nature of soft fingers allows for safe and dexterous manipulation of objects by humans in an unstructured environment. A soft prosthetic finger design with tactile sensing capabilities for texture discrimination and subsequent sensory stimulation has the potential to create a more natural experience for an amputee. In this work, a pneumatically actuated soft biomimetic finger is integrated with a textile neuromorphic tactile sensor array for a texture discrimination task. The tactile sensor outputs were converted into neuromorphic spike trains, which emulate the firing pattern of biological mechanoreceptors. Spike-based features from each taxel compressed the information and were then used as inputs for the support vector machine (SVM) classifier to differentiate the textures. Our soft biomimetic finger with neuromorphic encoding was able to achieve an average overall classification accuracy of 99.57% over sixteen independent parameters when tested on thirteen standardized textured surfaces. The sixteen parameters were the combination of four angles of flexion of the soft finger and four speeds of palpation. To aid in the perception of more natural objects and their manipulation, subjects were provided with transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) to convey a subset of four textures with varied textural information. Three able-bodied subjects successfully distinguished two or three textures with the applied stimuli. This work paves the way for a more human-like prosthesis through a soft biomimetic finger with texture discrimination capabilities using neuromorphic techniques that provides sensory feedback; furthermore, texture feedback has the potential to enhance the user experience when interacting with their surroundings. Additionally, this work showed that an inexpensive, soft biomimetic finger combined with a flexible tactile sensor array can potentially help users perceive their environment better

Ubiquitäre Systeme (Seminar) und Mobile Computing (Proseminar) WS 2016/17. Mobile und Verteilte Systeme. Ubiquitous Computing. Teil XIV

Diese Arbeit wird einen Überblick über virtuelle intelligente Assistenten (VIA), die im deutschen auch oft als Sprachassistenten bezeichnet werden, geben. Es werden die verschiedenen Arten von VIA gezeigt und in welchem Zusammenhang sie momentan schon genutzt werden. Als Beispiel werden einige aktuelle Assistenten dienen. Zudem werden neben den Möglichkeiten der Programme, auch noch die Grenzen dieser Technik dargestellt und mögliche Verbesserungen und Optimierungen für die Zukunft besprochen. Ebenfalls wird das empfindliche Thema Datenschutz mit Bezug auf die VIA behandelt. Am Ende des zweiten Teils gehen wir auf die aktuelle Beliebtheit und Nutzung der Anwendungen ein. Im dritten Abschnitt wird dann die Funktionsweise der Software im Hintergrund der Assistenten betrachtet. Es wird der allgemeine Aufbau eines VIA skizziert. Zudem werden zwei Modelle für die Arbeitsweise der Sprachassistenten betrachtet. Dazu werden auch einige theoretische Konzepte wie Ontologien, Knowledge Graphen und POMDP (partially observable Markov decision process) beleuchtet. Zum Schluss kommt ein Fazit über die weitere Entwicklung der VIA mit Überlegungen für Verbesserungen und Optimierungen

Advanced medical micro-robotics for early diagnosis and therapeutic interventions

Recent technological advances in micro-robotics have demonstrated their immense potential for biomedical applications. Emerging micro-robots have versatile sensing systems, flexible locomotion and dexterous manipulation capabilities that can significantly contribute to the healthcare system. Despite the appreciated and tangible benefits of medical micro-robotics, many challenges still remain. Here, we review the major challenges, current trends and significant achievements for developing versatile and intelligent micro-robotics with a focus on applications in early diagnosis and therapeutic interventions. We also consider some recent emerging micro-robotic technologies that employ synthetic biology to support a new generation of living micro-robots. We expect to inspire future development of micro-robots toward clinical translation by identifying the roadblocks that need to be overcome