Instrumentation and validation of a robotic cane for transportation and fall prevention in patients with affected mobility

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Engenharia Física, (especialização em Dispositivos, Microssistemas e Nanotecnologias)O ato de andar é conhecido por ser a forma primitiva de locomoção do ser humano, sendo que este traz muitos benefícios que motivam um estilo de vida saudável e ativo. No entanto, há condições de saúde que dificultam a realização da marcha, o que por consequência pode resultar num agravamento da saúde, e adicionalmente, levar a um maior risco de quedas. Nesse sentido, o desenvolvimento de um sistema de deteção e prevenção de quedas, integrado num dispositivo auxiliar de marcha, seria essencial para reduzir estes eventos de quedas e melhorar a qualidade de vida das pessoas. Para ultrapassar estas necessidades e limitações, esta dissertação tem como objetivo validar e instrumentar uma bengala robótica, denominada Anti-fall Robotic Cane (ARCane), concebida para incorporar um sistema de deteção de quedas e um mecanismo de atuação que possibilite a prevenção de quedas, ao mesmo tempo que assiste a marcha. Para esse fim, foi realizada uma revisão do estado da arte em bengalas robóticas para adquirir um conhecimento amplo e aprofundado dos componentes, mecanismos e estratégias utilizadas, bem como os protocolos experimentais, principais resultados, limitações e desafios em dispositivos existentes. Numa primeira fase, foi estipulado o objetivo de: (i) adaptar a missão do produto; (ii) estudar as necessidades do consumidor; e (iii) atualizar as especificações alvo da ARCane, continuação do trabalho de equipa, para obter um produto com design e engenharia compatível com o mercado. Foi depois estabelecida a arquitetura de hardware e discutidos os componentes a ser instrumentados na ARCane. Em seguida foram realizados testes de interoperabilidade a fim de validar o funcionamento singular e coletivo dos componentes. Relativamente ao controlo de movimento, foi desenvolvido um sistema inovador, de baixo custo e intuitivo, capaz de detetar a intenção do movimento e de reconhecer as fases da marcha do utilizador. Esta implementação foi validada com seis voluntários saudáveis que realizaram testes de marcha com a ARCane para testar sua operabilidade num ambiente de contexto real. Obteve-se uma precisão de 97% e de 90% em relação à deteção da intenção de movimento e ao reconhecimento da fase da marcha do utilizador. Por fim, foi projetado um método de deteção de quedas e mecanismo de prevenção de quedas para futura implementação na ARCane. Foi ainda proposta uma melhoria do método de deteção de quedas, de modo a superar as limitações associadas, bem como a proposta de dispositivos de deteção a serem implementados na ARCane para obter um sistema completo de deteção de quedas.The act of walking is known to be the primitive form of the human being, and it brings many benefits that motivate a healthy and active lifestyle. However, there are health conditions that make walking difficult, which, consequently, can result in worse health and, in addition, lead to a greater risk of falls. Thus, the development of a fall detection and prevention system integrated with a walking aid would be essential to reduce these fall events and improve people quality of life. To overcome these needs and limitations, this dissertation aims to validate and instrument a cane-type robot, called Anti-fall Robotic Cane (ARCane), designed to incorporate a fall detection system and an actuation mechanism that allow the prevention of falls, while assisting the gait. Therefore, a State-of-the-Art review concerning robotic canes was carried out to acquire a broad and in-depth knowledge of the used components, mechanisms and strategies, as well as the experimental protocols, main results, limitations and challenges on existing devices. On a first stage, it was set an objective to (i) enhance the product's mission statement; (ii) study the consumer needs; and (iii) update the target specifications of the ARCane, extending teamwork, to obtain a product with a market-compatible design and engineering that meets the needs and desires of the ARCane users. It was then established the hardware architecture of the ARCane and discussed the electronic components that will instrument the control, sensory, actuator and power units, being afterwards subjected to interoperability tests to validate the singular and collective functioning of cane components altogether. Regarding the motion control of robotic canes, an innovative, cost-effective and intuitive motion control system was developed, providing user movement intention recognition, and identification of the user's gait phases. This implementation was validated with six healthy volunteers who carried out gait trials with the ARCane, in order to test its operability in a real context environment. An accuracy of 97% was achieved for user motion intention recognition and 90% for user gait phase recognition, using the proposed motion control system. Finally, it was idealized a fall detection method and fall prevention mechanism for a future implementation in the ARCane, based on methods applied to robotic canes in the literature. It was also proposed an improvement of the fall detection method in order to overcome its associated limitations, as well as detection devices to be implemented into the ARCane to achieve a complete fall detection system

Development of a Wireless Mobile Computing Platform for Fall Risk Prediction

Falls are a major health risk with which the elderly and disabled must contend. Scientific research on smartphone-based gait detection systems using the Internet of Things (IoT) has recently become an important component in monitoring injuries due to these falls. Analysis of human gait for detecting falls is the subject of many research projects. Progress in these systems, the capabilities of smartphones, and the IoT are enabling the advancement of sophisticated mobile computing applications that detect falls after they have occurred. This detection has been the focus of most fall-related research; however, ensuring preventive measures that predict a fall is the goal of this health monitoring system. By performing a thorough investigation of existing systems and using predictive analytics, we built a novel mobile application/system that uses smartphone and smart-shoe sensors to predict and alert the user of a fall before it happens. The major focus of this dissertation has been to develop and implement this unique system to help predict the risk of falls. We used built-in sensors --accelerometer and gyroscope-- in smartphones and a sensor embedded smart-shoe. The smart-shoe contains four pressure sensors with a Wi-Fi communication module to unobtrusively collect data. The interactions between these sensors and the user resulted in distinct challenges for this research while also creating new performance goals based on the unique characteristics of this system. In addition to providing an exciting new tool for fall prediction, this work makes several contributions to current and future generation mobile computing research

Santa Clara Magazine, Volume 58 Number 1, Spring 2017

24 - BIG WIN FOR A TINY HOUSE Turning heads and changing the housing game. By Matt Morgan. 28 - $100 MILLION GIFT TO BUILD John A. ’60 and Susan Sobrato make the largest gift in SCU history. Now see the Sobrato Campus for Discovery and Innovation that will take shape—and redefine the University. Illustration by Tavis Coburn. 36 - CUT & PASTE CONSERVATION We can alter wild species to save them. So should we? By Emma Marris. Illustrations by Jason Holley. 44 - INFO OFFICER IN CHIEF From his office overlooking the White House, Tony Scott J.D. ’92 set out to bring the federal government into the digital age. By Steven Boyd Saum. 48 - FOR THE RECORD Deepwater Horizon. Volkswagen. The Exxon Valdez. Blockbuster cases and the career of John C. Cruden J.D. ’74, civil servant and defender of the environment extraordinaire. By Justin Gerdes. Photography by Robert Clark. 54 - WHERE THERE’S SMOKE … there might just be mirrors. On “fake news,” the Internet, and everyday ethics. By Irina Raicu. Illustrations by Lincoln Agnew.https://scholarcommons.scu.edu/sc_mag/1030/thumbnail.jp

Behaving Like Animals: Human Cruelty, Animal Suffering, and American Culture, 1900-present

What does it mean to be cruel to an animal? What does it mean for an animal to suffer? These are the questions embedded in the term "cruelty to animals," which has seemed, at first glance, a well defined term in modern America, in so far as it has been codified in anti-cruelty statutes. Cruelty to animals has been a disputed notion, though. What some groups call cruel, others call business, science, culture, worship, and art. Contests over the humane treatment of animals have therefore been contests over history, ideology, culture, and knowledge in which a variety of social actors-- animal scientists, cockfighters, filmmakers, FBI agents, members of Congress, members of PETA, and many, many others--try to decide which harms against animals and which forms of animal suffering are justifiable. Behaving Like Animals examines these contests in the United States from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present, focusing on four practices that modern American animal advocates have labeled cruel: malicious animal abuse, cockfighting, intensive animal agriculture, and the harming of animals on film. These case studies broadly trace the contours of American attitudes toward human cruelty and animal suffering over the last century. They also trace the historical evolution of the ideas embedded in the term “cruelty to animals.” Cruelty to animals has been the structuring logic of animal advocacy for two centuries, and historians have followed its development through the nineteenth century as a constellation of ideas about human and animal natures, about cruelty and kindness, and about suffering and sentience—very old ideas rooted in western intellectual thought and given shape by nineteenth-century sentimental culture. Behaving Like Animals follows this historical and intellectual thread into the twenty-first century, and reveals how these old ideas adapted to modern and evolving regimes of knowledge, science, and law, as they became thickly knotted in America’s varied and transforming social, cultural, intellectual, political, and legal contexts. That process has had varied and far-reaching implications in modern American culture, structuring social relations among Americans while shaping understandings of the place of animals in American society. Behaving Like Animals tells this history

Town of Plainfield, New Hampshire annual reports 2015. Annual reports of the officers and selectmen and the school district.

This is an annual report containing vital statistics for a town/city in the state of New Hampshire

Proceedings of the European Conference on Agricultural Engineering AgEng2021

This proceedings book results from the AgEng2021 Agricultural Engineering Conference under auspices of the European Society of Agricultural Engineers, held in an online format based on the University of Évora, Portugal, from 4 to 8 July 2021. This book contains the full papers of a selection of abstracts that were the base for the oral presentations and posters presented at the conference. Presentations were distributed in eleven thematic areas: Artificial Intelligence, data processing and management; Automation, robotics and sensor technology; Circular Economy; Education and Rural development; Energy and bioenergy; Integrated and sustainable Farming systems; New application technologies and mechanisation; Post-harvest technologies; Smart farming / Precision agriculture; Soil, land and water engineering; Sustainable production in Farm buildings

Design Re-enactments in Audio

Conference Pape

The Tiger Vol. 97 Issue 9 2003-11-07

https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/tiger_newspaper/2784/thumbnail.jp