Design and Testing of a Bionic Dancing Prosthesis

Traditionally, prosthetic leg research has focused on improving mobility for activities of daily living. Artistic expression such as dance, however, is not a common research topic and consequently prosthetic technology for dance has been severely limited for the disabled. This work focuses on investigating the ankle joint kinetics and kinematics during a Latin-American dance to provide unique motor options for disabled individuals beyond those of daily living. The objective of this study was to develop a control system for a bionic ankle prosthesis that outperforms conventional prostheses when dancing the rumba. The biomechanics of the ankle joint of a non-amputee, professional dancer were acquired for the development of the bionic control system. Subsequently, a professional dancer who received a traumatic transtibial amputation in April 2013 tested the bionic dance prosthesis and a conventional, passive prosthesis for comparison. The ability to provide similar torque-angle behavior of the biological ankle was assessed to quantify the biological realism of the prostheses. The bionic dancing prosthesis overlapped with 37 ± 6% of the non-amputee ankle torque and ankle angle data, compared to 26 ± 2% for the conventional, passive prosthesis, a statistically greater overlap (p = 0.01). This study lays the foundation for quantifying unique, expressive activity modes currently unavailable to individuals with disabilities. Future work will focus on an expansion of the methods and types of dance investigated in this work.Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Media Laborator

Development of a bionic dancing prosthesis

Thesis: M. Eng., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2014.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (pages 37-38).Research on lower extremity prostheses has primarily focused on activities of daily living, such as walking and running, but has largely overlooked less common activities. As a result, traditional prosthetic devices are designed for a walking/running gait, and are difficult to use for other activities. This study aims to take the first steps to determine if a bionic prosthesis can enable alternate activity modes, not driven by traditional activities of daily living. Specifically, we aim to modify the BiOM, a commercial robotic ankle prosthesis, to allow a professional dancer and below-knee amputee to dance the Rumba. The movements of an able-bodied professional dancer were quantified and analyzed in order to develop a novel dance control system for the BiOM. With minimal hardware modifications, a powered prosthetic device was developed that enables the subject to dance more proficiently than with a traditional prosthesis.by Nathan Villagaray-Carski.M. Eng

Microstructure and Oxidation Resistance of Laser Remelted Plasma Sprayed Nicraly Coating

The article presents results of research relating to the impact of laser treatment done to the surface of plasma sprayed coatings NiCrAlY. Analysis consisted microstructure and oxidation resistance of coatings subjected to two different laser melting surfaces. The test were performed at a temperature 1000°C the samples were removed from the furnace after 25, 300, 500, 750 and 1000 hours. The investigations range included analysis of top surface of coatings by XRD characterization oxides formed types and microscopic investigations of coatings morpholog

Microstructure and Oxidation Resistance of Laser Remelted Plasma Sprayed Nicraly Coating

The article presents results of research relating to the impact of laser treatment done to the surface of plasma sprayed coatings NiCrAlY. Analysis consisted microstructure and oxidation resistance of coatings subjected to two different laser melting surfaces. The test were performed at a temperature 1000°C the samples were removed from the furnace after 25, 300, 500, 750 and 1000 hours. The investigations range included analysis of top surface of coatings by XRD characterization oxides formed types and microscopic investigations of coatings morpholog