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Full-Text Articles in Mechanical Engineering
Design, Development And Testing Of A Balance Board With Variable Torsional Stiffness And Time Delay, Denise Renee Cruise
Design, Development And Testing Of A Balance Board With Variable Torsional Stiffness And Time Delay, Denise Renee Cruise
Open Access Theses
The ability to balance and maintain upright posture can decline for a variety of reasons, such as aging and neuromuscular impairment. As the ability to balance declines, the risk of falling increases. Falls are a major cause of injury, and often lead to a dramatic decline in quality of life. Currently, to alleviate balance deficiencies, people participate in balance training, which most commonly refers to standing on an unstable balance board; the most common boards used are either passive wobble boards, or more advanced commercial systems such as the Biodex System SD ® or the Neurocom SMART Balance Master® . …
A Novel Three Degree-Of-Freedoms Oscillation System Of Insect Flapping Wings, Yi Qin
A Novel Three Degree-Of-Freedoms Oscillation System Of Insect Flapping Wings, Yi Qin
Open Access Theses
We propose an oscillation system to replicate the dynamic behavior of flapping wings, inspired by insect flight muscles. In particular, we study the flight of the fruit fly Drosophila virilis . We model the wing as a rigid body with three degree-of-freedom, described by three Euler angles: the stroke angle, the rotation angle and the deviation angle. Insect flight muscles are separated into two types: power muscles and control muscles. One actuator and one torsional spring at the stroke angle act as the power muscles. Two torsional springs at the rotation angle and the deviation angle mimic the control muscles. …
Modeling Tools For Conformal Orthotic Devices, Steven David Riddle
Modeling Tools For Conformal Orthotic Devices, Steven David Riddle
Open Access Theses
The purpose of this thesis is to advance the design of conformal orthotic devices through the development of two modeling tools to address knowledge gaps in the field.
The field of human orthotics has been continually troubled by identifying successful methods of harnessing devices to the body. Past orthotics have utilized a rigid framework with minimal degrees of freedom (DOFs) driven by hard actuators attached to the body at select anchor points. Many devices design the structure and anchor points such that they reduce the degrees of freedom of a targeted joint, limiting the user's mobility and often causing the …