Engineering Commons^™

Simulated Tremor Propagation In The Upper Limb: From Muscle Activity To Joint Displacement, Thomas Corie, Steven Knight Charles

Faculty Publications

Although tremor is the most common movement disorder, there are few non-invasive treatment options. Creating effective tremor suppression devices requires a knowledge of where tremor originates mechanically (which muscles) and how it propagates through the limb (to which degrees of freedom, DOF).

To simulate tremor propagation, we created a simple model of the upper limb, with tremorogenic activity in the 15 major superficial muscles as inputs and tremulous joint displacement in the 7 major DOF as outputs. The model approximated the muscle excitation-contraction dynamics, musculoskeletal geometry, and mechanical impedance of the limb.

From our simulations, we determined fundamental principles for …

Use Of Flexible Sensor To Characterize Biomechanics Of Canine Skin, Austin Downey, Jin Yan, Eric M. Zellner, Karl H. Kraus, Iris V. Rivero, Simon Laflamme

Faculty Publications

Background Suture materials and techniques are frequently evaluated in ex vivo studies by comparing tensile strengths. However, the direct measurement techniques to obtain the tensile forces in canine skin are not available, and, therefore, the conditions suture lines undergo is unknown. A soft elastomeric capacitor is used to monitor deformation in the skin over time by sensing strain. This sensor was applied to a sample of canine skin to evaluate its capacity to sense strain in the sample while loaded in a dynamic material testing machine. The measured strain of the sensor was compared with the strain measured by the …