Wheelchair control by head motion

Electric wheelchairs are designed to aid paraplegics. Unfortunately, these can not be used by persons with higher degree of impairment, such as quadriplegics, i.e. persons that, due to age or illness, can not move any of the body parts, except of the head. Medical devices designed to help them are very complicated, rare and expensive. In this paper a microcontroller system that enables standard electric wheelchair control by head motion is presented. The system comprises electronic and mechanic components. A novel head motion recognition technique based on accelerometer data processing is designed. The wheelchair joystick is controlled by the system’s mechanical actuator. The system can be used with several different types of standard electric wheelchairs. It is tested and verified through an experiment performed within this paper

DEVELOPMENT OF MULTI-MODAL CONTROL INTERFACES FOR A SEMI-AUTONOMOUS WHEELCHAIR

The purpose of the project is to assist users with different levels of disabilities to control a semi-autonomous wheelchair. A semi-autonomous wheelchair developed by RIVeR Lab is able to perform assistive control to avoid obstacles and cliffs and to follow walls. With a joystick control adapter, the basic joystick of the wheelchair can take commands directly from computers. In addition to joystick mechanical adapter control, human-machine interaction and control methods such as voice and electromyography (EMG) are deployed, with the aim of enabling people with different levels and types of disabilities to control the wheelchair. These non-physical motion based user control interfaces allow people with limited mobility to control the wheelchair with a desired accuracy

Arm Position Measurement

This capstone project addresses the design and implementation of a device that measures arm position and speed. The device is intended for use in conducting further research on the motion of limbs affected by cerebral palsy, and in the prototypic development of a device that could help control such motion, thereby allowing a user to accomplish daily tasks. This project includes the design of an appropriate experiment and testing apparatus to explore possible solution prototypes, along with suggested methods to perform analysis of the experiment results. This is considered to be the fundamental research necessary to better understand the scope and requirements that a prototype design would need. The results of this experimental research will provide recommendations for moving forward in the development of an Arm Stabilizer device

A Low-Cost Tele-Presence Wheelchair System

This paper presents the architecture and implementation of a tele-presence wheelchair system based on tele-presence robot, intelligent wheelchair, and touch screen technologies. The tele-presence wheelchair system consists of a commercial electric wheelchair, an add-on tele-presence interaction module, and a touchable live video image based user interface (called TIUI). The tele-presence interaction module is used to provide video-chatting for an elderly or disabled person with the family members or caregivers, and also captures the live video of an environment for tele-operation and semi-autonomous navigation. The user interface developed in our lab allows an operator to access the system anywhere and directly touch the live video image of the wheelchair to push it as if he/she did it in the presence. This paper also discusses the evaluation of the user experience

Powered Device for Pushing a Manual Wheelchair

The goal of this project was to design and prototype a cost-effective, powered, manual wheelchair-pusher that is easy to use, transportable, and satisfies the requirements of institutional and personal use. The device locks around a crossbar underneath the wheelchair and uses a battery-powered motor with a drive wheel and a manually controlled front wheel to steer. Testing confirmed the functionality of the pusher; further improvements to the device are recommended so that it may be used by an institution or individual

Mechatronic Systems

Mechatronics, the synergistic blend of mechanics, electronics, and computer science, has evolved over the past twenty five years, leading to a novel stage of engineering design. By integrating the best design practices with the most advanced technologies, mechatronics aims at realizing high-quality products, guaranteeing at the same time a substantial reduction of time and costs of manufacturing. Mechatronic systems are manifold and range from machine components, motion generators, and power producing machines to more complex devices, such as robotic systems and transportation vehicles. With its twenty chapters, which collect contributions from many researchers worldwide, this book provides an excellent survey of recent work in the field of mechatronics with applications in various fields, like robotics, medical and assistive technology, human-machine interaction, unmanned vehicles, manufacturing, and education. We would like to thank all the authors who have invested a great deal of time to write such interesting chapters, which we are sure will be valuable to the readers. Chapters 1 to 6 deal with applications of mechatronics for the development of robotic systems. Medical and assistive technologies and human-machine interaction systems are the topic of chapters 7 to 13.Chapters 14 and 15 concern mechatronic systems for autonomous vehicles. Chapters 16-19 deal with mechatronics in manufacturing contexts. Chapter 20 concludes the book, describing a method for the installation of mechatronics education in schools

20th Annual Symposium of the School of Science, Engineering and Health

We in the School of Science, Engineering and Health at Messiah University welcome you to our 20th Annual Symposium. Please celebrate with our students, staff and faculty as you hear about and see professional presentations that showcase our students’ basic and applied research in science and health fields. The outcomes of scientific research expand intellectual understanding and have tremendous impact on quality of life, environmental health, and human flourishing. We warmly welcome you as guests for the day. Angela Hare Dean School of Science, Engineering and Healt

Ergonomic Evaluation and Design Process for Healthcare Products: A Case Study of Patient Transfer Design

Department of Human Factors EngineeringInpatient falls are a critical issue in healthcare facilities. Up to 30% of such falls result in injury, which may in turn lead to impaired rehabilitation and co-morbidity in mental and physical health. One of routine activities that poses high risks of falls of patients is a within-facility patient transfer. Within-facility patient transfer is a high-risk task not only for patients but also for care-givers. Care-givers frequently transfer patients from bed to a wheelchair or wheelchair to bed manually, and it can cause musculoskeletal injuries of the care-giver. Various aid devices such as a powered patient lifter have been introduced to improve the safety of patient transfer and to assist care-givers, but they have not been widely used due to their bulky size and slow operation. To overcome such problems, one of medical robot manufacturers in Korea developed the functional prototype of a semi-powered patient lift and transportation device. The device is equipped with a forward leaning seat to allow easy loading and unloading patients without manual lifting. Since the functionality and usability of the prototype has not been evaluated, it was necessary to conduct thorough evaluation both in fields and laboratory and to come up with redesign goals and strategies. Therefore, this study was aimed to evaluate the functionality and usability of the prototype using various ergonomic evaluation approaches and to redesign the prototype based on the results of the evaluation. In the evaluation process, various methods have been used to understand and identify care-givers??? needs, interaction patterns between the prototype and patients, and safety issues when operating the prototype inside and outside patient rooms through user interview and field observation studies at hospitals. To evaluate the biomechanical advantages over traditional manual transfer methods, a human-subject experiment was also conducted with quantitative assessment of muscle activities, foot reaction forces and transfer time. Then, using the findings of the evaluation, redesign ideas have been made and the prototype has been upgraded to reflect the ideas. The upgraded prototype was evaluated again at hospitals to confirm whether the changes improved the functionality and usability of the device. In this paper, detail procedures for the evaluation and redesign are explained, with related problems and challenges. Also, some ideas for improving the evaluation/redesign processes for healthcare products are proposed for future research and development.ope

Development And Human Performance Evaluation Of Control Modes Of An Exo-Skeletal Assistive Robotic Arm (esara)

This research was conducted to assist with functional tasks for a targeted group of individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI); with C5 to C7 level of injury relating to upper extremity movement. The specific population was selected as the existing technology was either too expensive, too bulky or was unable to address their needs in regards to upper extremity mobility. In addition, no platforms allowed multimodal control options for customization or provided a methodology for this crucial evaluation. The motivation of this research was to provide a methodology for selecting the appropriate control of an assistive device based on the range of basic human movements that were possible by the population under consideration (button pushing, lever sliding, and speech). The main idea was to create an evaluation methodology based on a user platform with multiple modes of control. The controls were developed such that they would allow operation of the device with respect to the capabilities of SCI participants. Engineering advancements have taken assistive robotics to new dimensions. Technologies such as wheelchair robotics and myo-electronically controlled systems have opened up a wide range of new applications to assist people with physical disabilities. Similarly exo-skeletal limbs and body suits have provided new foundations from which technologies can aid function. Unfortunately, these devices have issues of usability, weight, and discomfort with donning. The Smart Assistive Reacher Arm (SARA) system, developed in this research, is a voice-activated, lightweight, mobile device that can be used when needed. SARA was built to help overcome daily reach challenges faced by individuals with limited arm and hand movement capability, such as people with cervical level 5-6 (C5-6) SCI. The functional reacher arm with voice control can be beneficial for this population. Comparison study with healthy participants and an SCI participant shows that, when using SARA, a person with SCI can perform simple reach and grasp tasks independently, without someone else\u27s help. This suggests that the interface is intuitive and can be easily used to a high-level of proficiency by a SCI individual. Using SARA, an Exo-Skeletal Assistive Robotic Arm (eSARA) was designed and built. eSARA platform had multiple modes of control namely, voice (ballistic mode with no extremity movement), button (ballistic mode with minor extremity movement) and slider (continuous mode with major extremity movement). eSARA was able to extend a total of 7 inches from its original position. The platform also provided lift assist for users that can potentially enable them to lift up to 20lbs.The purpose of eSARA was to build a platform that could help design a methodology to select the modality for a specific level of SCI injury or capability. The eSARA platform\u27s Human Machine Interface (HMI) was based on two experiments `Fine movement experiment\u27 and `Gross movement experiment\u27. These experiments tested the reaching, grasping and lifting ability of the platform. Two groups of healthy young adults were selected to perform the experiment. The first group, 12 healthy participants, had no movement restrictions. The second group, 6 Occupational Therapy students, that could mimic restrictions similar to those of a level 5-6 SCI individual. The experiment was also conducted by an SCI individual. The results of the 2 groups from both the experiments were compared with the results of the SCI participant. It was found that the SCI participant\u27s time performance to finish the tasks was comparable to the average of the healthy participants. It was concluded that the developed methodology and platforms could be used to evaluate the control modes needed in order to customize the system to the capabilities of SCI individual. . These platforms can be tested for a broader range of participants including participants with arthritis, recovering from paralysis and seniors with movement issues