Related papers: i-Socket: Design, Development, and Pilot Evaluatio…
For amputees with powered transfemoral prosthetics, navigating obstacles or complex terrain remains challenging. This study addresses this issue by using an inertial sensor on the sound ankle to guide obstacle-crossing movements. A genetic…
Natural hard composites like human bone possess a combination of strength and toughness that exceeds that of their constituents and of many engineered composites. This augmentation is attributed to their complex hierarchical structure,…
Cortical bone is a tough biological material composed of tube-like osteons embedded in the organic matrix surrounded by weak interfaces known as cement lines. The cement lines provide a microstructurally preferable crack path, hence…
Tendon-driven hand orthoses have advantages over exoskeletons with respect to wearability and safety because of their low-profile design and ability to fit a range of patients without requiring custom joint alignment. However, no existing…
When we develop wearable assistive devices comfort and support are two main issues needed to be considered. In conventional design approaches, the degree of freedom of wearer's joint movement tends to be oversimplified. Accordingly, the…
This paper presents design principles for comfort-centered wearable robots and their application in a lightweight and backdrivable knee exoskeleton. The mitigation of discomfort is treated as mechanical design and control issues and three…
Midsoles are important components in footwear as they provide shock absorption and stability, thereby improving comfort and effectively preventing certain foot and ankle injuries. A rationally tailored midsole can potentially mitigate…
Upper-limb amputees face tremendous difficulty in operating dexterous powered prostheses. Previous work has shown that aspects of prosthetic hand, wrist, or elbow control can be improved through "intelligent" control, by combining…
Fibre jamming is a relatively new and understudied soft robotic mechanism that has previously found success when used in stiffness-tuneable arms and fingers. However, to date researchers have not fully taken advantage of the freedom offered…
In this work, we introduce the principle, design and mechatronics of Exo-Muscle, a novel assistive device for the knee joint. Different from the existing systems based on rigid exoskeleton structures or soft-tendon driven approaches, the…
The purpose of the present experiment was to investigate whether the sensory weighting of a plantar pressure-based, tongue-placed tactile biofeedback for controlling posture could be subject to inter-individual variability. To achieve this…
We describe the architecture of an original biofeedback system for balance improvement for fall prevention and present results of a feasibility study. The underlying principle of this biofeedback consists of providing supplementary…
The design of functional seating furniture is a complicated process which often requires extensive manual design effort and empirical evaluation. We propose a computational design framework for pose-driven automated generation of…
The control of multi-fingered dexterous prosthetics hand remains challenging due to the lack of an intuitive and efficient Grasp-type Switching Interface (GSI). We propose a new GSI (i-GSI) t hat integrates the manifold power of…
High energy impacts at joint locations often generate highly fragmented, or comminuted, bone fractures. Current approaches for treatment require physicians to decide how to classify the fracture within a hierarchy fracture severity…
In this paper, we investigate the feasibility, robustness and optimization of introducing personal comfort systems (PCS), apparatuses that promises in energy saving and comfort improvement, into a broader range of environments. We report a…
Current upper limb prostheses aim to enhance user independence in daily activities by incorporating basic motor functions. However, they fall short of replicating the natural movement and interaction capabilities of the human arm. In…
Due to the redundancy of our motor system, movements can be performed in many ways. While multiple motor control strategies can all lead to the desired behavior, they result in different joint and muscle forces. This creates opportunities…
Tactile sensing is a crucial perception mode for robots and human amputees in need of controlling a prosthetic device. Today robotic and prosthetic systems are still missing the important feature of accurate tactile sensing. This lack is…
Gait phase-based control is a trending research topic for walking-aid robots, especially robotic lower-limb prostheses. Gait phase estimation is a challenge for gait phase-based control. Previous researches used the integration or the…