In-home and remote use of robotic body surrogates by people with profound motor deficits

By controlling robots comparable to the human body, people with profound motor deficits could potentially perform a variety of physical tasks for themselves, improving their quality of life. The extent to which this is achievable has been unclear due to the lack of suitable interfaces by which to control robotic body surrogates and a dearth of studies involving substantial numbers of people with profound motor deficits. We developed a novel, web-based augmented reality interface that enables people with profound motor deficits to remotely control a PR2 mobile manipulator from Willow Garage, which is a human-scale, wheeled robot with two arms. We then conducted two studies to investigate the use of robotic body surrogates. In the first study, 15 novice users with profound motor deficits from across the United States controlled a PR2 in Atlanta, GA to perform a modified Action Research Arm Test (ARAT) and a simulated self-care task. Participants achieved clinically meaningful improvements on the ARAT and 12 of 15 participants (80%) successfully completed the simulated self-care task. Participants agreed that the robotic system was easy to use, was useful, and would provide a meaningful improvement in their lives. In the second study, one expert user with profound motor deficits had free use of a PR2 in his home for seven days. He performed a variety of self-care and household tasks, and also used the robot in novel ways. Taking both studies together, our results suggest that people with profound motor deficits can improve their quality of life using robotic body surrogates, and that they can gain benefit with only low-level robot autonomy and without invasive interfaces. However, methods to reduce the rate of errors and increase operational speed merit further investigation.Comment: 43 Pages, 13 Figure

Screening of energy efficient technologies for industrial buildings' retrofit

This chapter discusses screening of energy efficient technologies for industrial buildings' retrofit

Human reproduction in space. Late results

Objectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::3 - Salut i BenestarPostprint (published version

Purification of Pharmaceutical Grade Salmon-Derived Thrombin and Fibrinogen for Hemostatic Bandages

Hemorrhage due to trauma is the leading cause of preventable death among American soldiers, according the National Institute of Trauma. Uncontrollable bleeding is also seen regularly in civilian incidences of trauma and is a common major surgical complication. The human blood clotting process involves a complex cascade of tightly regulated enzymatic reactions. Two of the most important proteins in this cascade are fibrinogen and thrombin. Thrombin is an enzyme that activates fibrinogen monomers to form a polymeric fibrin network, forming the basis of a blood clot. During trauma, a state of consumptive coagulopathy, the body depletes these two proteins causing severe bleeding. A novel way to counteract hemorrhage is to supply additional thrombin and fibrinogen to the focal injury site. However, as of yet fibrinogen has proved technically challenging to produce recombinantly, and mammalian-based proteins carry the risk of pathogen transmission and immune response. Salmon-derived proteins, on the other hand, overcome both of these obstacles. DiamondStat is a novel hemostatic bandage that delivers fibrinogen and thrombin purified from salmon blood. It is a 4 x 4 inch adhesive bandage that delivers 10 mg/cm2 of fibrinogen and 90 units/cm2 of thrombin to effectively stop hemorrhage. The production of DiamondStat bandages begins with harvesting blood from salmon. Through a series of centrifugations and precipitations, prothrombin (a zymogen precursor to thrombin) and fibrinogen are extracted from the blood. Additional precipitations and filtrations further purify the fibrinogen solution to pharmaceutical-grade. The prothrombin is converted to thrombin in an immobilized snake venom catalyst column. Thrombin is then purified through an affinity column and ultrafiltration. Both thrombin and fibrinogen solutions are run through endotoxin removal columns and then sprayed onto pieces of gauze. The proteins are lyophilized onto the gauze and 2 the final bandage, which consists of fibrinogen and thrombin gauze pieces and an adhesive backing, is assembled. Bandages are sterilized via gamma irradiation and ready for use. At a capacity of 300,000 bandages per year and $800 per bandage, DiamondStat production is very profitable. It will yield an internal rate of return of 289.76$489 million. Extensive sensitivity analysis indicates that the project will be profitable in all likely scenarios. Investment in the DiamondStat processing plant is highly recommended. It is an economically viable project with the potential to save the lives of hundreds of thousands of American servicemen and women

A comparison of processing techniques for producing prototype injection moulding inserts.

This project involves the investigation of processing techniques for producing low-cost moulding inserts used in the particulate injection moulding (PIM) process. Prototype moulds were made from both additive and subtractive processes as well as a combination of the two. The general motivation for this was to reduce the entry cost of users when considering PIM. PIM cavity inserts were first made by conventional machining from a polymer block using the pocket NC desktop mill. PIM cavity inserts were also made by fused filament deposition modelling using the Tiertime UP plus 3D printer. The injection moulding trials manifested in surface finish and part removal defects. The feedstock was a titanium metal blend which is brittle in comparison to commodity polymers. That in combination with the mesoscale features, small cross-sections and complex geometries were considered the main problems. For both processing methods, fixes were identified and made to test the theory. These consisted of a blended approach that saw a combination of both the additive and subtractive processes being used. The parts produced from the three processing methods are investigated and their respective merits and issues are discussed

Reducing risk in pre-production investigations through undergraduate engineering projects.

This poster is the culmination of final year Bachelor of Engineering Technology (B.Eng.Tech) student projects in 2017 and 2018. The B.Eng.Tech is a level seven qualification that aligns with the Sydney accord for a three-year engineering degree and hence is internationally benchmarked. The enabling mechanism of these projects is the industry connectivity that creates real-world projects and highlights the benefits of the investigation of process at the technologist level. The methodologies we use are basic and transparent, with enough depth of technical knowledge to ensure the industry partners gain from the collaboration process. The process we use minimizes the disconnect between the student and the industry supervisor while maintaining the academic freedom of the student and the commercial sensitivities of the supervisor. The general motivation for this approach is the reduction of the entry cost of the industry to enable consideration of new technologies and thereby reducing risk to core business and shareholder profits. The poster presents several images and interpretive dialogue to explain the positive and negative aspects of the student process