Online estimation of continuous gait phase for robotic transtibial prostheses based on adaptive oscillators

Continuous gait phase plays an important role in wearable robot control. This study focuses on the online estimation of continuous gait phase based on robotic transtibial prosthesis signals. First, we adopt the prosthetic foot deformation information to detect the heel strike as the start timing (reset 0 rad) of one gait cycle. Then we conduct the gait phase estimation based on adaptive oscillators using the prosthetic shank angle signal as input. Three transtibial amputees were recruited in this study and they walked on the treadmill at different speeds (slow, normal and fast) and on different ramps (10°, 5°, 0°, -5° and -10°) in the experiment. The root-meansquare error between online estimation result and ground truth gait phase is calculated. The maximum and minimum errors are 0.147 rad and 0.058 rad, and the corresponding ratios in one gait cycle are 2.34% and 0.92%. This study achieves good performance and provides an effective method to estimate the continuous gait phase, which will instruct robotic transtibial prosthesis control

Impact of Ear Occlusion on In-Ear Sounds Generated by Intra-oral Behaviors

We conducted a case study with one volunteer and a recording setup to detect sounds induced by the actions: jaw clenching, tooth grinding, reading, eating, and drinking. The setup consisted of two in-ear microphones, where the left ear was semi-occluded with a commercially available earpiece and the right ear was occluded with a mouldable silicon ear piece. Investigations in the time and frequency domains demonstrated that for behaviors such as eating, tooth grinding, and reading, sounds could be recorded with both sensors. For jaw clenching, however, occluding the ear with a mouldable piece was necessary to enable its detection. This can be attributed to the fact that the mouldable ear piece sealed the ear canal and isolated it from the environment, resulting in a detectable change in pressure. In conclusion, our work suggests that detecting behaviors such as eating, grinding, reading with a semi-occluded ear is possible, whereas, behaviors such as clenching require the complete occlusion of the ear if the activity should be easily detectable. Nevertheless, the latter approach may limit real-world applicability because it hinders the hearing capabilities.</p

Microfabricated tactile sensors for biomedical applications: a review

During the last decades, tactile sensors based on different sensing principles have been developed due to the growing interest in robotics and, mainly, in medical applications. Several technological solutions have been employed to design tactile sensors; in particular, solutions based on microfabrication present several attractive features. Microfabrication technologies allow for developing miniaturized sensors with good performance in terms of metrological properties (e.g., accuracy, sensitivity, low power consumption, and frequency response). Small size and good metrological properties heighten the potential role of tactile sensors in medicine, making them especially attractive to be integrated in smart interfaces and microsurgical tools. This paper provides an overview of microfabricated tactile sensors, focusing on the mean principles of sensing, i.e., piezoresistive, piezoelectric and capacitive sensors. These sensors are employed for measuring contact properties, in particular force and pressure, in three main medical fields, i.e., prosthetics and artificial skin, minimal access surgery and smart interfaces for biomechanical analysis. The working principles and the metrological properties of the most promising tactile, microfabricated sensors are analyzed, together with their application in medicine. Finally, the new emerging technologies in these fields are briefly described

A Lower Limb Prosthesis with Active Alignment for Reduced Limb Loading

Over the past decade, the growing field of robotics has created new possibilities in lower limb prostheses. The focus of these new prostheses has been replicating the dynamics of the lost limb in order to restore gait of individuals with lower limb amputations to healthy norms. This places demanding loads on the residual limb. Compensation by the rest of body is high, causes overloading of intact joints and can lead to deterioration of mobility and overall health. Abnormalities remain present in the person’s gait, stemming from the loading of soft tissue and the altered anatomy of the affected limb. In this dissertation, an experimental prosthesis is developed with systematic, simulation based techniques. Kinematics and kinetics of the prosthesis design are altered in order to actively realign the limb in relation to the center of pressure during stance, allowing positive power to be generated by the prosthesis while actively reducing the magnitude of the sagittal moment transferred to the residual limb. Initial findings show that during walking with the experimental device compared to a daily use prosthesis, peak pressures on the residual limb are lowered by over 10% while maintaining walking speed

Design and manufacture of a universal mechanical human joint simulator

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University London.The work performed in this thesis involves the study of human hip joint kinematics and load analysis. Such analyses are very useful for investigating mobility and natural functionality as well as the variation in motion due to replacement implants. The objective of this study is to design, build and testing of a universal human joint simulator that is configurable to hold several human joints and easily programmable to create the required motion. This was performed by creating a Stewart Platform, which is capable of moving in all six degrees of freedom; the maximum number needed by any human joint. Many specific human joint simulators are available on the market for simulating all major human limbs. These are used for wear testing replacement joints by using high load repetitive motion. These systems have a predetermined limit degree of movement and are very expensive; if one wanted to emulate another joint, one would have to purchase a whole new system. This novel system compromises of a three-phase power supply, Control Area Network with six actuators and drivers, a force reading clamp with strain gauges and data logger. A user friendly computer program was developed that is able to derive joint movement data from two inputs and replicating the movement by driving the platform, as well as recording force and displacement data from the joint. The product would be marketed towards biomechanical researchers and implant designers. Verification of this system was performed by simulating the human hip joint. A known combination of kinematic and force data were inputted into the system for nine different types of activities. The resultant force and joint centre displacement was then compared to see how well the system perform in comparison to the inputted data from a previous study. The outcome of this project is a fully functional machine and configurable program that can create movement data at varying speeds and body weights; which is also able to drive the human joint simulator. The design also costs a fraction of any industrial joint simulator. It is hoped that the simulator will allow easier study of both the kinematics and load analysis within the human joints, with the intent on aiding investigation into mobility and functionality; as well as variation in motion caused by a replacement implant

Fiber Bragg Gratings as e-Health Enablers: An Overview for Gait Analysis Applications

Nowadays, the fast advances in sensing technologies and ubiquitous wireless networking are reflected in medical practice. It provides new healthcare advantages under the scope of e-Health applications, enhancing life quality of citizens. The increase of life expectancy of current population comes with its challenges and growing health risks, which include locomotive problems. Such impairments and its rehabilitation require a close monitoring and continuous evaluation, which add financial burdens on an already overloaded healthcare system. Analysis of body movements and gait pattern can help in the rehabilitation of such problems. These monitoring systems should be noninvasive and comfortable, in order to not jeopardize the mobility and the day-to-day activities of citizens. The use of fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) as e-Health enablers has presented itself as a new topic to be investigated, exploiting the FBGs’ advantages over its electronic counterparts. Although gait analysis has been widely assessed, the use of FBGs in biomechanics and rehabilitation is recent, with a wide field of applications. This chapter provides a review of the application of FBGs for gait analysis monitoring, namely its use in topics such as the monitoring of plantar pressure, angle, and torsion and its integration in rehabilitation exoskeletons and for prosthetic control

Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationTactile sensors are a group of sensors that are widely being developed for transduction of touch, force and pressure in the field of robotics, contact sensing and gait analysis. These sensors are employed to measure and register interactions between contact surfaces and the surrounding environment. Since these sensors have gained usage in the field of robotics and gait analysis, there is a need for these sensors to be ultra flexible, highly reliable and capable of measuring pressure and two-axial shear simultaneously. The sensors that are currently available are not capable of achieving all the aforementioned qualities. The goal of this work is to design and develop such a flexible tactile sensor array based on a capacitive sensing scheme and we call it the flexible tactile imager (FTI). The developed design can be easily multiplexed into a high-density array of 676 multi-fingered capacitors that are capable of measuring pressure and two-axial shear simultaneously while maintaining sensor flexibility and reliability. The sensitivity of normal and shear stress for the FTI are 0.74/MPa and 79.5/GPa, respectively, and the resolvable displacement and velocity are as low as 60 µm and 100 µm/s, respectively. The developed FTI demonstrates the ability to detect pressure and shear contours of objects rolling on top of it and capability to measure microdisplacement and microvelocities that are desirable during gait analysis

Shear-promoted drug encapsulation into red blood cells: a CFD model and μ-PIV analysis

The present work focuses on the main parameters that influence shear-promoted encapsulation of drugs into erythrocytes. A CFD model was built to investigate the fluid dynamics of a suspension of particles flowing in a commercial micro channel. Micro Particle Image Velocimetry (μ-PIV) allowed to take into account for the real properties of the red blood cell (RBC), thus having a deeper understanding of the process. Coupling these results with an analytical diffusion model, suitable working conditions were defined for different values of haematocrit