Background. Acquired brain injury (ABI) is one of the leading causes of motor deficits in children and adults and often results in motor control and balance impairments. Motor deficits include abnormal loading and unloading, increased double support time, decreased walking speed, control, and coordination. These deficits lead to diminished functional ambulation and reduced quality of life. Robotic

The present study emphasized on the optimal design of a motorized prosthetic leg and evaluation of its performance for stair walking. Developed prosthetic leg includes two degrees of freedom on the knee and ankle joint designed using a virtual product development process for better stair walking. The DC motor system was introduced to imitate gait motion in the knee joint, and a spring system was applied

Background. Scoliosis is a three-dimensional (3D) deformity of the spine, which affects the patient’s appearance and may lead to abnormal heart and lung function. The rib cage is a structure composed of ribs, sternum, and costal cartilage, which plays a vital role in stabilising the thoracolumbar spine. This study investigates the influence of the rib cage on the static characteristics of the scoliotic

In this paper, we have given the design and development of a new wearable device that assists visually impaired individuals to travel independently and confidently. The newly proposed device is based on range-based sensors and would work effectively in both indoor and outdoor conditions. It is constructed in the form of two separate modules; one module is designed such that it can be attached to the

Transrectal ultrasound prostate biopsy is the most commonly used method for the diagnosis of prostate cancer. During the operation, the doctor needs to manually adjust the ultrasound probe for repeated adjustments, which is difficult to ensure the efficiency, accuracy, and safety of the operation. This paper presents a passive posture adjusting mechanism of transrectal ultrasound probe. The overall

This paper presents algorithms for identifying the odour source of a chemical plume with significant filament intermittency and meander developed in fluid-advected environments. The algorithms are abstracted from moth-inspired chemical plume tracing strategies in two steps. First, we introduce the concept of the last chemical detection points that leads to construction of a source identification zone

In this work, an innovative robotic solution for human care and assistance is presented. Our main objective is to develop a new concept of portable robot able to support the elderly and those people with different levels of disability during the execution of daily tasks, such as washing their face or hands, brushing their teeth, combing their hair, eating, drinking, and bringing objects closer, among

A simulation based study of a completely new form of body-weight supported treadmill training (BWSTT) technique which is fully passive in nature is presented in this paper. The approach does not require any powered means at the lower limbs and is implemented using a combination of coordinated joint locking/unlocking and flexible torque transfer mechanisms. The hip extension pertaining to the stance

Peristaltic transport of an incompressible viscous fluid due to an asymmetric waves propagating on the horizontal sidewalls of a rectangular duct is studied under long-wavelength and low-Reynolds number assumptions. The peristaltic wave train on the walls have different amplitudes and phase. The flow is investigated in a wave frame of reference moving with velocity of the wave. The effect of aspect

3D upper body pose estimation is a topic greatly studied by the computer vision society because it is useful in a great number of applications, mainly for human robots interactions including communications with companion robots. However there is a challenging problem: the complexity of classical algorithms that increases exponentially with the dimension of the vectors’ state becomes too difficult to

This paper details the application of a forward model to improve a reaching task. The reaching task must be accomplished by a humanoid robot with 53 degrees of freedom (d.o.f.) and a stereo-vision system. We have explored via simulations a new way of constructing and utilizing a forward model that encodes eye–hand relationships. We constructed a forward model using the data obtained from only a single

This paper presents the key testing and analysis results of an investigation on the effect of heel height on the plantar pressure over different foot areas in jogging. It is important in improving the understanding of jogging with high heels and damage/injury prevention. It can also potentially guide the development of suitable/adaptive exercise schemes in between daily activities with high heels.

Modelling of joint properties of lower limbs in people with spinal cord injury is significantly challenging for researchers due to the complexity of the system. The objective of this study is to develop a knee joint model capable of relating electrical parameters to dynamic joint torque as well as knee angle for functional electrical stimulation application. The joint model consists of a segmental

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There are few reports on the biomechanical analysis of the animal humerus. In this study, a three-dimensional finite element model of the bovine humerus was created, and loaded with the physiological forces acting when the cow is falling or jumping (weight and impact forces). Subsequently the corresponding stress and strain distribution in the humerus for different inclined positions of bone was determined

Background: Tendon mechanical properties have been used to evaluate the effects of therapies on the healing of animal tendons, but these measures have not been convenient to record in vivo in humans due to their invasive nature. The aims of this study were to assess the capability of an ultrasonography technique to track the change in stiffness of the healing human patellar tendon and to assess the

This paper describes the development of a scooter supporting the mobility of older people. The scooter is equipped with a drive assistance system and a special scooter navigation system. The drive assistance system consists of a velocity controller, a steering controller, and a collision avoidance system. In this paper it is demonstrated how the challenging control and steering tasks are modified to

In recent years, new surgical tools have been designed to improve treatment results and lower patient trauma. Nevertheless, the dexterity and accuracy required for the positioning of new tools are often unreachable, if surgeons are not assisted by suitable systems. Significant advantages are derived from the introduction of computer and robot technologies. For that reason, the interaction between robotic

Objective: BIONs™ (BIOnic Neurons) are injectable, wireless microstimulators that make chronic BION Active Seating (BAS) possible for pressure ulcer prevention (PUP). Neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) produces skeletal motion and activates trophic factors, counteracting three major etiological mechanisms leading to pressure ulcers (PUs): immobility, soft-tissue atrophy, and ischemia. Companion

Wheelchair-mounted robotic arms have been commercially available for a decade. In order to operate these robotic arms, a user must have a high level of cognitive function. Our research focuses on replacing a manufacturer-provided, menu-based interface with a vision-based system while adding autonomy to reduce the cognitive load. Instead of manual task decomposition and execution, the user explicitly

New movement assessment and data analysis methods are developed to quantify human arm motion patterns during physical interaction with robotic devices for rehabilitation. These methods provide metrics for future use in diagnosis, assessment and rehabilitation of subjects with affected arm movements. Specifically, the current study uses existing pattern recognition methods to evaluate the effect of

This paper discusses the effect of peristaltic transport on the fluid flow in the gap between two eccentric tubes (eccentric-annulus flows). The inner tube is uniform, rigid, while the outer tube has a sinusoidal wave traveling down its wall. The flow analysis has been developed for low Reynolds number and long wave length approximation. The velocity and the pressure gradient have been obtained in

The way that natural systems navigate their environments with agility, intelligence and efficiency is an inspiration to engineers. Biological attributes such as modes of locomotion, sensory modalities, behaviours and physical appearance have been used as design goals. While methods of locomotion allow robots to move through their environment, the addition of sensing, perception and decision making

The total hip replacement is an operation that replaces a diseased hip with a mechanical articulation. Both components of the mechanical articulation (stem and the cup) are bonded to bone using orthopedic cement, whose reliability determines the longevity of the implant. The cement around the metallic stem forms a mantle whose strength and toughness determine its resistance to fatigue and failure by

This work examines two different types of myoelectric control schemes for the purpose of rehabilitation robot applications. The first is a commonly used technique based on a Gaussian classifier. It is implemented in real time for healthy subjects in addition to a subject with Central Cord Syndrome (CCS). The myoelectric control scheme is used to control three degrees of freedom (DOF) on a robot manipulator

The magneto-hemodynamic laminar viscous flow of a conducting physiological fluid in a semi-porous channel under a transverse magnetic field has been analyzed by the optimal Homotopy Analysis Method (OHAM) and Differential Transform Method (DTM) under physically realistic boundary conditions first. Then as the main purpose of this study the important designing subject, entropy generation of this system

How does the central nervous system control the body posture during various tasks despite a redundancy? It's a well-known question existed in such fields of study as biomechanics and bioengineering. Some techniques based on muscle and torques synergies are presented to study the function which Central Nervous System uses to addresses the kinetic redundancy in musculoskeletal system. The human body

Robotics has shown its potential not only in assisting the surgeon during an intervention but also as a tool for training and for surgical procedure's evaluation. Thus, robotics can constitute an extension of simulators that are based on the high capabilities of computer graphics. In addition, haptics has taken a first step in increasing the performance of current virtual reality systems based uniquely

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The thumb motion of 10 normal subjects during cellular phone use was measured using a reflective marker detection system to compare the maximum, minimum and range of flexion angles of the interphalangeal (IP), metacarpophalangeal (MP) and carpometacarpal (CM) joints. Two micro-reflective markers 3 mm in diameter were each placed on the dorsal surface of the distal phalanx, basal phalanx and metacarpal

Lumbar bracing is prescribed frequently for disability caused by low back pain; however, investigations into this practice demonstrate a range of patient outcomes. This inconsistency may arise from the practice of employing voluntary, single-axis trunk movements when investigating braces. Alternatively, this study employed a parallel robot to create a standardised, multi-axis testing environment. Surface

Pleated pneumatic artificial muscles have interesting properties that can be of considerable significance in robotics and automation. With a view to the potential use of pleated pneumatic artificial muscles as actuators for a fatigue test bench (high forces and small displacements), the bandwidth characteristics of a muscle-valve system were investigated. Bandwidth is commonly used for linear systems

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The introduction of Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS) has revolutionised surgical care, considerably improving the quality of many surgical procedures. Technological advances, particularly in robotic surgery systems, have reduced the complexity of such an approach, paving the way for even less invasive surgical trends. However, the fact that haptic feedback has been progressively lost through this transition

Hydrocephalus is a cerebral disease where brain ventricles enlarge and compress the brain parenchyma towards the skull leading to symptoms like dementia, walking disorder and incontinence. The origin of normal pressure hydrocephalus is still obscure. In order to study this disease, a finite element model is built using the geometries of the ventricles and the skull measured by magnetic resonance imaging

People affected by Cerebral Palsy suffer from physical disabilities due to irreversible neural impairment since the very beginning of their life. Difficulties in motor control and coordination often relegate these patients to the use of a wheelchair and to the unavoidable upcoming of disuse syndromes. As pointed out in recent literature Damiano [7] physical exercise, especially in young ages, can have

We developed an active ankle-foot orthosis (AAFO) that controls dorsiflexion/plantarflexion of the ankle joint to prevent foot drop and toe drag during hemiplegic walking. To prevent foot slap after initial contact, the ankle joint must remain active to minimize forefoot collision against the ground. During late stance, the ankle joint must also remain active to provide toe clearance and to aid with

Background: Pressure ulcers (PUs) are common and debilitating wounds that arise when immobilized patients cannot shift their weight. Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation (NMES) has been investigated for Pressure Ulcer Prevention (PUP) for over 20 years. Historically gluteus maximus (GM) has been considered an important actuator in attempting to redistribute seated pressures through NMES.Methods: Analysis

The slime mould Physarumpolycephalum is a suitable candidate organism for soft-matter robotics because it exhibits controllable transport, movement and guidance behaviour. Physarum may be considered as a smart computing and actuating material since both its motor and control systems are distributed within its undifferentiated tissue and can survive trauma such as excision, fission and fusion of plasmodia

The development of temporomandibular joint implants has involved simplified mechanical tests that apply pure vertical forces or pure rotational movements to the implant. The aim of this study was to develop a biological based mastication mechanism and conduct preliminary testing of a novel temporomandibular joint implant. The mechanism was designed to mimic temporomandibular joint loads by performing

Robotic rehabilitation of CVA (stroke) survivors is an emerging field. However, the development of effective gait rehabilitation robots used to treat stroke survivors is and remains a challenging task. This article discusses existing approaches and gives an overview of limitations with existing wearable robots. Challenges and potential solutions are being discussed in this article. Most difficulties

IKerlan’s Orthosis (IKO) is an upper limb exoskeleton oriented to increasing human force during routine activity at the workplace. Therefore, it can be considered as a force-amplification device conceived to work in collaboration with the human arm and implementing biomimetic principles. The aim of the proposed design is to find the best compromise between maximum reachable workspace and minimum moving

In this manuscript, an autonomous navigation algorithm for wheeled mobile robots (WMR) operating in dynamic environments (indoors or structured outdoors) is formulated. The planning scheme is of critical importance for autonomous navigational tasks in complex dynamic environments. In fast dynamic environments, path planning needs algorithms able to sense simultaneously a diversity of obstacles, and

Minimally invasive robotic surgery has gained wide acceptance recently. Computer-aided features to assist the surgeon during these interventions may help to develop safer, faster, and more accurate procedures. Especially physiological motion compensation of the beating heart and online soft tissue modelling are promising features that were developed recently. This paper presents the integration of

This paper describes a visual perception system for a social robot. The central part of this system is an artificial attention mechanism that discriminates the most relevant information from all the visual information perceived by the robot. It is composed by three stages. At the preattentive stage, the concept of saliency is implemented based on ‘proto-objects’ [37]. From these objects, different

This paper presents a gender and country-based analysis of the results of a multi-national survey questionnaire on the attitudes, requirements and preferences of blind and visually impaired people for a robotic guide. This is introduced by a brief summary of the findings of the survey introduced and reported in Part 1 and a brief overview of some of the technologies that are currently used in the construction

The present paper concerns with the fluid mechanical study on the effects of the permeability of the wall through an overlapping stenosis in an artery assuming that the flowing blood is represented by a macroscopic two-phase model. The expressions for the blood flow characteristics, the impedance, the wall shear stress distribution in the stenotic region, shearing stress at the stenosis throats and

We describe a sensory substitution scheme that converts a video stream into an audio stream in real-time. It was initially developed as a research tool for studying human ability to learn new ways of perceiving the world: the Vibe can give us the ability to learn a kind of ‘vision’ by audition. It converts a video stream into a continuous stereophonic audio signal that conveys information coded from

Bed sores, a common problem among immobile patients occur as a result of continuous sweating due to increase in skin to bed surface temperature in patients lying on same posture for prolonged period. If left untreated, the skin can break open and become infected. Currently adopted methods for bed sores prevention include: use of two hourly flip chat for repositioning patient or use of air fluidized

The automation of recurrent tasks and force feedback are complex problems in medical robotics. We present a novel approach that extends human-machine skill-transfer by a scaffolding framework. It assumes a consolidated working environment for both, the trainee and the trainer. The trainer provides hints and cues in a basic structure which is already understood by the learner. In this work, the scaffolding

This paper exploits optimal position of the mobile sensor to improve the target tracking performance of wireless sensor networks and simultaneously localize both of the static sensor nodes and mobile sensor nodes when tracking the human motion. In our approach, mobile sensors collaborate with static sensors and move optimally to achieve the required detection performance. The accuracy of final tracking

Physical movement impairments caused by central nervous system dysfunction or by muscle spasms generated from other neurological damage or dysfunction can often make it difficult or impossible for affected individuals to interact with computer generated environments using the conventional mouse interfaces. This work investigates the use of a 2 dimensional haptic device as an assistive robotic aid to

This paper presents a simulation of bipedal locomotion to generate stimulation pulses for activating muscles for paraplegic walking with wheel walker using functional electrical stimulation (FES) with spring brake orthosis (SBO). A new methodology for paraplegic gait, based on exploiting natural dynamics of human gait, is introduced. The work is a first effort towards restoring natural like swing phase

The design of a prosthetic wrist is the result of compromises between the function and the practicality of the device. Conventional prosthetic wrists use a single degree of freedom to produce pro/supination of the hand. It has not been demonstrated that this is the most functional alignment for a single axis. Previous work by the authors suggests that if the wrist must have only one rotatory axis then

This paper addresses the peristaltic flow of Eyring-Powell fluid in a symmetric channel with convective conditions. The Soret and Dufour effects are considered. Impact of first order chemical reaction is seen. The channel walls are of compliant nature. Long wavelength and low Reynolds number concepts are implemented. Resulting problems are solved for the stream function, temperature and concentration

Background: Although robotic therapy is at the forefront of upper limb rehabilitation, there is limited information about the importance of selecting age-matched subjects to evaluate recovery of arm movement during rehabilitation.Objective: This study aims to quantify differences in the arm motion of healthy children and adults when they interact with a planar robot, in order to determine whether an

The main goal of this paper is to describe a method for the assessment of the motor performance in post-stroke subjects who have been undergone a robot-aided upper limb rehabilitation treatment. The motivation for adopting such methodology relies on the need of quantitative methods for the evaluation of the effects of robot-aided rehabilitation treatments, which assumes great importance from the clinical

In order to improve the working performance of cassava harvester, structural bionic design for its digging shovel was conducted. Taking the oriental mole cricket's paws as bionic prototype, a new structural bionic design method for digging shovel was established, which considers the morphology-configuration-function coupling bionic. A comprehensive performance comparison method was proposed, which

This paper focuses on a dynamic sensory-motor control mechanism of reaching movements for a musculo-skeletal redundant arm model. The formulation of a musculo-skeletal redundant arm system, which takes into account non-linear muscle properties obtained by some physiological understandings, is introduced and numerical simulations are perfomed. The non-linear properties of muscle dynamics make it possible