128 research outputs found
Developing Effective Intelligent Assistance for the Powered Wheelchair User
This research is working towards developing a pre-production prototype system which can provide a low-cost real-time adjustable and adaptable driving assistance system for powered wheelchair users. Currently we are seeking to obtain information from user joystick input and their driving quality to identify symptoms and make adjustments to the driving assistance system
Low Cost Inertial Sensors for the Motion Track-ing and Orientation Estimation of Human Upper Limbs in Neurological Rehabilitation
This paper presents the feasibility of utilizing low cost inertial sensors such as those found in Sony Move, Nintendo Wii (Wii Remote with Wii MotionPlus) and smartphones for upper limb motion mon-itoring in neurorehabilitation. Kalman and complementary filters based on data fusion are used to estimate sensor 3D orientation. Furthermore, a two-segment kinematic model was developed to estimate limb segment position tracking. Performance has been compared with a high-accuracy measurement system using the Xsens MTx. The experimental results show that Sony Move, Wii and smartphones can be used for measuring upper limb orientation, while Sony Move and smartphones can also be used for specific applications of upper limb segment joint orientation and position tracking during neurorehabilitation. Sony Move’s accuracy is within 1.5° for Roll and Pitch and 2.5° for Yaw and position tracking to within 0.5 cm over a 10 cm movement. This accuracy in measurement is thought to be adequate for upper limb orientation and position tracking. Low cost inertial sensors can be used for the accurate assessment/measurement of upper limb movement of patients with neurological disorders and also makes it a low cost replacement for upper limb motion measurements. The low cost inertial sensing systems were shown to be able to accurately measure upper limb joint orienta-tion and position during neurorehabilitation
Measuring Thread Timing to Assess the Feasibility of Early-bird Message Delivery
Early-bird communication is a communication/computation overlap technique
that combines fine-grained communication with partitioned communication to
improve application run-time. Communication is divided among the compute
threads such that each individual thread can initiate transmission of its
portion of the data as soon as it is complete rather than waiting for all of
the threads. However, the benefit of early-bird communication depends on the
completion timing of the individual threads. In this paper, we measure and
evaluate the potential overlap, the idle time each thread experiences between
finishing their computation and the final thread finishing. These measurements
help us understand whether a given application could benefit from early-bird
communication. We present our technique for gathering this data and evaluate
data collected from three proxy applications: MiniFE, MiniMD, and MiniQMC. To
characterize the behavior of these workloads, we study the thread timings at
both a macro level, i.e., across all threads across all runs of an application,
and a micro level, i.e., within a single process of a single run. We observe
that these applications exhibit significantly different behavior. While MiniFE
and MiniQMC appear to be well-suited for early-bird communication because of
their wider thread distribution and more frequent laggard threads, the behavior
of MiniMD may limit its ability to leverage early-bird communication
Quantitative Assessment of Upper Limb Motion in Neurorehabilitation Utilizing Inertial Sensors
Two inertial sensor systems were developed for 3-D tracking of upper limb movement. One utilizes four sensors and a kinematic model to track the positions of all four upper limb segments/joints and the other uses one sensor and a dead reckoning algorithm to track a single upper limb segment/joint. Initial evaluation indicates that the system using the kinematic model is able to track orientation to 1 degree and position to within 0.1 cm over a distance of 10 cm. The dead reckoning system combined with the “zero velocity update” correction can reduce errors introduced through double integration of errors in the estimate in offsets of the acceleration from several meters to 0.8% of the total movement distance. Preliminary evaluation of the systems has been carried out on ten healthy volunteers and the kinematic system has also been evaluated on one patient undergoing neurorehabilitation over a period of ten weeks. The initial evaluation of the two systems also shows that they can monitor dynamic information of joint rotation and position and assess rehabilitation process in an objective way, providing additional clinical insight into the rehabilitation process
Upper Limb Position Tracking with a Single Inertial Sensor Using Dead Reckoning Method with Drift Correction Techniques
Inertial sensors are widely used in human motion monitoring. Orientation and position are the two most widely used measurements for motion monitoring. Tracking with the use of multiple inertial sensors is based on kinematic modelling which achieves a good level of accuracy when biomechanical constraints are applied. More recently, there is growing interest in tracking motion with a single inertial sensor to simplify the measurement system. The dead reckoning method is commonly used for estimating position from inertial sensors. However, significant errors are generated after applying the dead reckoning method because of the presence of sensor offsets and drift. These errors limit the feasibility of monitoring upper limb motion via a single inertial sensing system. In this paper, error correction methods are evaluated to investigate the feasibility of using a single sensor to track the movement of one upper limb segment. These include zero velocity update, wavelet analysis and high-pass filtering. The experiments were carried out using the nine-hole peg test. The results show that zero velocity update is the most effective method to correct the drift from the dead reckoning-based position tracking. If this method is used, then the use of a single inertial sensor to track the movement of a single limb segment is feasible
Feature determination from powered wheelchair user joystick input characteristics for adapting driving assistance
Background: Many powered wheelchair users find their medical condition and
their ability to drive the wheelchair will change over time. In order to maintain
their independent mobility, the powered chair will require adjustment over time
to suit the user's needs, thus regular input from healthcare professionals is
required. These limited resources can result in the user having to wait weeks
for appointments, resulting in the user losing independent mobility,
consequently affecting their quality of life and that of their family and carers. In
order to provide an adaptive assistive driving system, a range of features need
to be identified which are suitable for initial system setup and can automatically
provide data for re-calibration over the long term.
Methods: A questionnaire was designed to collect information from powered
wheelchair users with regard to their symptoms and how they changed over
time. Another group of volunteer participants were asked to drive a test platform
and complete a course which represented manoeuvring in a very confined
space as quickly as possible. Two of those participants were also monitored
over a longer period in their normal home daily environment. Features, thought
to be suitable, were examined using pattern recognition classifiers to determine
their suitability for identifying the changing user input over time.
Results: The results are not designed to provide absolute insight into the
individual user behaviour, as no ground truth of their ability has been
determined, they do nevertheless demonstrate the utility of the measured
features to provide evidence of the users’ changing ability over time whilst
driving a powered wheelchair.
Conclusions: Determining the driving features and adjustable elements
provides the initial step towards developing an adaptable assistive technology
for the user when the ground truths of the individual and their machine have
been learned by a smart pattern recognition syste
Upper Limb Position Tracking with a Single Inertial Sensor Using Dead Reckoning Method with Drift Correction Techniques
Inertial sensors are widely used in human motion monitoring. Orientation and position are the two most widely used measurements for motion monitoring. Tracking with the use of multiple inertial sensors is based on kinematic modelling which achieves a good level of accuracy when biomechanical constraints are applied. More recently, there is growing interest in tracking motion with a single inertial sensor to simplify the measurement system. The dead reckoning method is commonly used for estimating position from inertial sensors. However, significant errors are generated after applying the dead reckoning method because of the presence of sensor offsets and drift. These errors limit the feasibility of monitoring upper limb motion via a single inertial sensing system. In this paper, error correction methods are evaluated to investigate the feasibility of using a single sensor to track the movement of one upper limb segment. These include zero velocity update, wavelet analysis and high-pass filtering. The experiments were carried out using the nine-hole peg test. The results show that zero velocity update is the most effective method to correct the drift from the dead reckoning-based position tracking. If this method is used, then the use of a single inertial sensor to track the movement of a single limb segment is feasible
KELT-8b: A highly inflated transiting hot Jupiter and a new technique for extracting high-precision radial velocities from noisy spectra
We announce the discovery of a highly inflated transiting hot Jupiter
discovered by the KELT-North survey. A global analysis including constraints
from isochrones indicates that the V = 10.8 host star (HD 343246) is a mildly
evolved, G dwarf with K, , , an inferred mass
M, and radius
R. The planetary companion has mass , radius
, surface gravity , and density
g cm. The planet is on a roughly
circular orbit with semimajor axis AU and
eccentricity . The best-fit linear ephemeris is
BJD and
days. This planet is one of the most inflated of all known transiting
exoplanets, making it one of the few members of a class of extremely low
density, highly-irradiated gas giants. The low stellar and large
implied radius are supported by stellar density constraints from follow-up
light curves, plus an evolutionary and space motion analysis. We also develop a
new technique to extract high precision radial velocities from noisy spectra
that reduces the observing time needed to confirm transiting planet candidates.
This planet boasts deep transits of a bright star, a large inferred atmospheric
scale height, and a high equilibrium temperature of
K, assuming zero albedo and perfect heat redistribution, making it one of the
best targets for future atmospheric characterization studies.Comment: Submitted to ApJ, feedback is welcom
KELT-7b: A hot Jupiter transiting a bright V=8.54 rapidly rotating F-star
We report the discovery of KELT-7b, a transiting hot Jupiter with a mass of
MJ, radius of RJ, and an orbital
period of days. The bright host star (HD33643;
KELT-7) is an F-star with , Teff K, [Fe/H]
, and . It has a mass of
Msun, a radius of Rsun, and
is the fifth most massive, fifth hottest, and the ninth brightest star known to
host a transiting planet. It is also the brightest star around which KELT has
discovered a transiting planet. Thus, KELT-7b is an ideal target for detailed
characterization given its relatively low surface gravity, high equilibrium
temperature, and bright host star. The rapid rotation of the star (
km/s) results in a Rossiter-McLaughlin effect with an unusually large amplitude
of several hundred m/s. We find that the orbit normal of the planet is likely
to be well-aligned with the stellar spin axis, with a projected spin-orbit
alignment of degrees. This is currently the second most
rapidly rotating star to have a reflex signal (and thus mass determination) due
to a planetary companion measured.Comment: Accepted to The Astronomical Journa
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