Columbus State University Honors College: Senior Theses, Fall 2020/Spring 2021

This is a collection of senior theses written by honors students at Columbus State University during the Fall 2020 and Spring 2021 semesters.https://csuepress.columbusstate.edu/honors_theses/1002/thumbnail.jp

Two-channel surface stimulation for the correction of drop foot.

1 Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) is used for the correction of drop foot. The clinical objective is to promote dorsiflexion to avoid tripping, and mild eversion for stability during loading. Traditional transcutaneous FES systems require the accurate positioning of surface electrodes on the skin so that the appropriate nerves are activated to give the desired muscle response. Many people find electrode positioning difficult. 2 This project examined the feasibility of using two channels of transcutaneous electrical stimulation as an adaptive system to correct drop foot. Both channels were positioned over the branches of the common peroneal nerve at the fibular head, broadly with the 'lateral' channel promoting eversion and the 'medial' channel promoting dorsiflexion. The main focus of the study was the effect on foot posture of changing the currents in each channel (the 'current balance'), and the possibility of using this in an open-loop or closed-loop control system to compensate for variation in electrode position. 3 In support of closed-loop control, a sensor consisting of switches under the heel, 1st and 5th metatarsal heads was used to assess the degree of inversion/eversion during walking. A simple controller was implemented to link the two-channel stimulation system and the foot posture sensor, with the objective of maintaining a target foot posture despite minor variation in electrode position. 4 The study found that with careful set-up the current balance could affect the inversion/eversion of the foot while also maintaining dorsiflexion. However, the range of posture control was sensitive to the electrode positions and so this approach did not significantly reduce the need to position the electrodes carefully. The signal from the in-shoe foot posture sensor was often poorly correlated with foot posture as measured by a goniometer. The control system responded appropriately to its inputs, but its overall performance was limited by the input sensor and the output range of influence. The two-channel technique may have utility as part of a leg cuff system, enabling the user to fine-tune the foot posture once the electrodes are positioned appropriately

The European Pilgrimage Routes for promoting sustainable and quality tourism in rural areas

The International Conference the European Pilgrimage Routes for promoting sustainable and quality tourism in rural areas took place December 4 to 6, 2014 in Firenze (Italy) and was organized by the Department of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Systems – University of Florence in collaboration with the Tuscany Region, the Department for Life Quality Studies and Department of Agricultural Sciences – University of Bologna, the Italian Association of Agricultural Engineering and the European Association of the Francigena Way. The Conference involving 150 experts from 18 countries and was divided into five areas of discussion: conservation and evolution of the landscape along the routes; life quality and social impact; tourism and local development; sustainability in the rural areas; tools and methods for building a tourist attraction

Stable locomotion of humanoid robots based on mass concentrated model

El estudio de la locomoción de robots humanoides es actualmente un área muy activa, en el campo de la robótica. Partiendo del principio que el hombre esta construyendo robots para trabajar juntos cooperando en ambientes humanos. La estabilidad durante la caminata es un factor crítico que prevee la caída del robot, la cual puede causar deterioros al mismo y a las personas en su entorno. De esta manera, el presente trabajo pretende resolver una parte del problema de la locomoción bípeda, esto es los métodos empleados para “La generación del paso” (“Gait generation”) y asi obtener la caminata estable. Para obtener una marcha estable se utilizan modelos de masa concentrada. De esta manera el modelo del “pendulo invertido simple” y el modelo del “carro sobre la mesa” se han utilizado para conseguir la marcha estable de robots humanoides. En el modelo del pendulo invertido, la masa el pendulo conduce el movimiento del centro de gravedad (CDG) del robot humanoide durante la marcha. Se detallara que el CDG se mueve como una bola libre sobre un plano bajo las leyes del pendulo en el campo de gravedad. Mientras que en el modelo del “carro sobre la mesa”, el carro conduce el movimiento del CDG durante la marcha. En este caso, el movimiento del carro es tratado como un sistema servocontrolado, y el movimiento del CDG es obtenido con los actuales y futuros estados de referencia del Zero Moment Point (ZMP). El método para generar el paso propuesto esta compuesto de varias capas como son Movimiento global, movimiento local, generación de patrones de movimiento, cinemática inversa y dinámica inversa y finalmente una corrección off-line. Donde la entrada en este método es la meta global (es decir la configuración final del robot, en el entorno de marcha) y las salidas son los patrones de movimiento de las articulaciones junto con el patrón de referencia del ZMP. Por otro lado, se ha propuesto el método para generar el “Paso acíclico”. Este método abarca el movimiento del paso dinámico incluyendo todo el cuerpo del robot humanoide, desde desde cuaquier postura genérica estáticamente estable hasta otra; donde las entradas son los estados inicial y final del robot (esto es los ángulos iniciales y finales de las articulaciones) y las salidas son las trayectorias de referencia de cada articulación y del ZMP. Se han obtenido resultados satisfactorios en las simulaciones y en el robot humanoide real Rh-1 desarrollado en el Robotics lab de la Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. De igual manera el movimiento innovador llamado “Paso acíclico” se ha implemenado exitosamente en el robot humanoide HRP-2 (desarrollado por el AIST e Industrias Kawada Inc., Japon). Finalmente los resultados, contribuciones y trabajos futuros se expondran y discutirán. _______________________________________________The study of humanoid robot locomotion is currently a very active area in robotics, since humans build robots to work their environments in common cooperation and in harmony. Stability during walking motion is a critical fact in preventing the robot from falling down and causing the human or itself damages. This work tries to solve a part of the locomotion problem, which is, the “Gait Generation” methods used to obtain stable walking. Mass concentrated models are used to obtain stable walking motion. Thus the inverted pendulum model and the cart-table model are used to obtain stable walking motion in humanoid robots. In the inverted pendulum model, the mass of the pendulum drives the center of gravity (COG) motion of the humanoid robot while it is walking. It will be detailed that the COG moves like a free ball on a plane under the laws of the pendulum in the field of gravity. While in the cart-table model, the cart drives the COG motion during walking motion. In this case, the cart motion is treated as a servo control system, obtaining its motion from future reference states of the ZMP. The gait generation method proposed has many layers like Global motion, local motion, motion patterns generation, inverse kinematics and inverse dynamics and finally off-line correction. When the input in the gait generation method is the global goal (that is the final configuration of the robot in walking environment), and the output is the joint patterns and ZMP reference patterns. Otherwise, the “Acyclic gait” method is proposed. This method deals with the whole body humanoid robot dynamic step motion from any generic posture to another one when the input is the initial and goal robot states (that is the initial and goal joint angles) and the output is the joint and ZMP reference patterns. Successful simulation and actual results have been obtained with the Rh- 1 humanoid robot developed in the Robotics lab (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain) and the innovative motion called “Acyclic gait” implemented in the HRP-2 humanoid robot platform (developed by the AIST and Kawada Industries Inc., Japan). Furthermore, the results, contributions and future works will be discussed

MYTHOGEOGRAPHIC PERFORMANCE AND PERFORMATIVE INTERVENTIONS IN SPACES OF HERITAGE-TOURISM

Abstract MYTHOGEOGRAPHIC PERFORMANCE AND PERFORMATIVE INTERVENTIONS IN SPACES OF HERITAGE-TOURISM by PHIL SMITH This thesis offers new models for participatory and performative interventions in sites of heritage tourism through a theorized practical engagement. Drawing on both Tourism Studies and Performance Studies, the primary aim of these interventions is to reveal and provoke ways of seeing and using these sites as places of multiple meanings rather than as ones constricted and bounded by normative heritage narratives in their production and management. The experimental phase of the project discussed in the thesis includes three contrasting case studies: GeoQuest, Sardine Street, and Water Walk. These are each analysed and evaluated through my development of a ‘mythogeographic’ framework that includes the performative techniques of layering, rhizomatic interweaving, the making of 'anywheres' and the self-mythologising of the activist. The thesis charts a trajectory through praxis, from developing models for ambulatory, signage-based and ‘mis-guided’ interventions to be undertaken by performance ‘specialists’, towards a dispersal of their tactics for use by heritage tourists in general. It thus describes a related change in the balance of the research methodology from ethnographic participant observation towards practice-as-research (PaR), the latter of which both generated and enacted knowledge and understanding. This PaR took the form of various visits and forays to and across heritage sites and landscape, and also the production of a ‘toolkit’ of handbook, pocketbook, website and online short films for the dispersal of tactics and a strategy that is eventually called ‘counter-tourism’. The thesis thus includes the publications A Sardine Street box of tricks, Counter-tourism: the handbook, Counter-tourism: a pocketbook and the DVD, Tactics for counter-tourism, as well as their fully theorized critical contextualisation. These represent a PaR enquiry that attempts to creatively express my research findings from productions made in the field through a popular form of writing and presentation that is capable of inspiring general, ‘non-specialist’ tourists to make their own performance interventions in heritage sites