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Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering Commons™
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Full-Text Articles in Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering
Design And Biomechanical Evaluation Of A Clutch-Based Energy Storage And Release Assistive Knee Brace, Ericber Jimenez Francisco
Design And Biomechanical Evaluation Of A Clutch-Based Energy Storage And Release Assistive Knee Brace, Ericber Jimenez Francisco
Doctoral Dissertations
Knee osteoarthritis (OA) is a serious degenerative disease affecting over 240 million people around the world. The most disabling symptoms are joint pain, joint stiffness, and reduction in joint functionality. Medial compartment knee OA is the most common case of unicompartmental knee OA, and pain and progression have been associated with tibiofemoral alignment in early to moderate knee OA patients, mainly due to its association with knee loading as measured by knee adduction moment (KAM) and tibiofemoral contact forces (KCF). Valgization knee braces have been developed to correct the malalignment at the tibiofemoral joint, but they have no direct effect …
Predictive Simulation Of Human Movement And Applications To Assistive Device Design And Control, Vinh Nguyen
Predictive Simulation Of Human Movement And Applications To Assistive Device Design And Control, Vinh Nguyen
Doctoral Dissertations
Predictive simulation based on dynamic optimization using musculoskeletal models is a powerful approach for studying biomechanics of human gait. Predictive simulation can be used for a variety of applications from designing assistive devices to testing theories of motor controls. However, one of the challenges in formulating the predictive dynamic optimization problem is that the cost function, which represents the underlying goal of the walking task (e.g., minimal energy consumption) is generally unknown and is assumed a priori. While different studies used different cost functions, the qualities of the gaits with those cost functions were often not provided. Therefore, this dissertation …
A Continous Rotary Actuation Mechanism For A Powered Hip Exoskeleton, Matthew C. Ryder
A Continous Rotary Actuation Mechanism For A Powered Hip Exoskeleton, Matthew C. Ryder
Masters Theses
This thesis presents a new mechanical design for an exoskeleton actuator to power the sagittal plane motion in the human hip. The device uses a DC motor to drive a Scotch yoke mechanism and series elasticity to take advantage of the cyclic nature of human gait and to reduce the maximum power and control requirements of the exoskeleton. The Scotch yoke actuator creates a position-dependent transmission that varies between 4:1 and infinity, with the peak transmission ratio aligned to the peak torque periods of the human gait cycle. Simulation results show that both the peak and average motor torque can …