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Full-Text Articles in Mechanical Engineering

A Comprehensive Analysis Of Balance, Symmetry, And Center Of Mass In The Gait Cycle Of Transfemoral Amputees, Kayla T. Etienne Jul 2020

A Comprehensive Analysis Of Balance, Symmetry, And Center Of Mass In The Gait Cycle Of Transfemoral Amputees, Kayla T. Etienne

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis is to create a framework that assists in the transfemoral prosthesis fitting process by calculating balance and symmetry to quantify patient comfort with an understanding of bipedal locomotion and human anatomy. Three different software applications were used to compare (1) the body position during gait cycle, (2) the natural and amputee anatomies, (3) the natural and prosthetic legs, and (4) the equilibrium and torque movements of the hip, knee, and ankle joints. Models were created in Maya for analysis in Solidworks and MEL code evaluation with MatLab. The MatLab code tested combinations of joint degrees …


Predictive Simulation Of Human Movement And Applications To Assistive Device Design And Control, Vinh Nguyen Nov 2019

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 …


Estimation And Prediction Of The Human Gait Dynamics For The Control Of An Ankle-Foot Prosthesis, Guilherme Aramizo Ribeiro Jan 2019

Estimation And Prediction Of The Human Gait Dynamics For The Control Of An Ankle-Foot Prosthesis, Guilherme Aramizo Ribeiro

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

With the growing population of amputees, powered prostheses can be a solution to improve the quality of life for many people. Powered ankle-foot prostheses can be made to behave similar to the lost limb via controllers that emulate the mechanical impedance of the human ankle. Therefore, the understanding of human ankle dynamics is of major significance. First, this work reports the modulation of the mechanical impedance via two mechanisms: the co-contraction of the calf muscles and a change of mean ankle torque and angle. Then, the mechanical impedance of the ankle was determined, for the first time, as a multivariable …


Developing A Testing Instrument To Evaluate The Performance Of 3d-Printed Body-Powered Prosthetic Hands, Araz Al-Dawoodi Jan 2019

Developing A Testing Instrument To Evaluate The Performance Of 3d-Printed Body-Powered Prosthetic Hands, Araz Al-Dawoodi

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

A 3D printed prosthetic hand is an open source technology that became a good substitution for many products in the market. For many reasons, Low-cost, easy made / easy build. As an open source product, 3D printed prosthetic designs are available to anyone around the world, a good option for young children because they need to have a new prosthetic more frequent until they reach the adulthood age. Most families cannot pay a thousand dollars technology. From the research, it found that that there are not enough studies cover the open source wrist body-powered prosthetic. Other studies covered products used …


Self-Powered Ankle Prosthetic, Corina M. Espelien, Kelsey Pietzsch, Anna Sullivan Jun 2017

Self-Powered Ankle Prosthetic, Corina M. Espelien, Kelsey Pietzsch, Anna Sullivan

Mechanical Engineering

Originating from QL+'s customer requirements, the main technical specifications were to have 80% physiological range of motion, elastic energy return, impact absorption, and no external power sources. Based on the background research conducted and the discussions with experts in the field, the project team decided to focus on designing a prosthetic that focused on plantarflexion and dorsiflexion for a more comfortable gait. The main components of the final design are a hydraulic shock absorber, cam, torsion springs, heel, stopper, and separated keel. The heel, front and back keels, and stopper were manufactured out of carbon fiber. The link, lever, attachment …


Design Of A Passive Ankle Prosthesis With Powered Push-Off Using A Cam Timing Mechanism, Jacob J. Rice Jul 2014

Design Of A Passive Ankle Prosthesis With Powered Push-Off Using A Cam Timing Mechanism, Jacob J. Rice

Master's Theses (2009 -)

This thesis presents the design and simulation results of the CamWalk, a novel passive prosthetic ankle that has mechanical behavior similar to that for a natural ankle. The CamWalk uses a compression spring network that allows coupling between two degrees of freedom; one for translation along the leg and another for rotation about the ankle joint. When walking, potential energy from the person's weight is stored in the spring network in deflection along the leg. The energy is released by the network as rotation of the foot. The amount of translational work that is converted to rotational work about the …


Design And Development Of A Stair Ascension Assistive Device For Transfemoral Amputees, Casey Michael Barbarino Jun 2013

Design And Development Of A Stair Ascension Assistive Device For Transfemoral Amputees, Casey Michael Barbarino

Master's Theses

Transfemoral amputees around the world experience increased difficulty in climbing stairs due to lack of muscle, balance, and other factors. The loss of a lower limb greatly diminishes the amount of natural force generation provided that is necessary to propel oneself up stairs. This study investigated possible solutions to the problem of stair ascension for transfemoral amputees by the means of designing and developing an externally attachable device to a prosthesis. The number of amputations from military service has greatly increased since 2008, which shows there is a clear need for assistive devices (Wenke, Krueger, & Ficke, 2012). With the …


Design And Testing Of A Low Cost Prosthetic Foot, Shalan Ertis, John Kearns, Seija Maniskas Jun 2012

Design And Testing Of A Low Cost Prosthetic Foot, Shalan Ertis, John Kearns, Seija Maniskas

Mechanical Engineering

No abstract provided.