Engineering Commons^™

Design Of Path Correction For Improved Gait Rehabilitation, Zvonimir Pusnik

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Following a serious neurological injury or disease, such as a spinal cord injury or multiple sclerosis, many patients develop impaired gait (the ability to walk). There are many different pieces of equipment to help rehabilitate people with impaired gait, ranging from over ground walking with exoskeletons to treadmills with partial bodyweight support. Since the 1990s and 2000s, elliptical trainers have entered the rehabilitative field as a machine with low impact forces and gait-like motion. This led researchers at Madonna Rehabilitation Hospitals to collaborate with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to create the Intelligently Controlled Assistive Rehabilitation Elliptical (ICARE).

While the ICARE …

Biomechanical Investigation Of Elite Place-Kicking, Chase M. Pfeifer

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Many studies aim to understand the fundamentals of kicking commonly displayed by soccer players [4,6,10,16,17,18,24,25,28,29,30,34,36,38,40]. Of those studies, most are limited to a two-dimensional (2D) analysis using high-speed cameras for position tracking or utilizing electromyography to observe the activity of select muscles [4,6,18,25,29,36]. The few studies that investigate kicking using a three-dimensional (3D) model are limited in their position tracking capabilities and focus mainly on joint flexion potentials and foot speed.

This dissertation is a comprehensive biomechanical analysis (kinematic and EMG) of the field-goal place-kicking techniques of four elite kickers in American football. Data were compared and contrasted with ball …

Measurement And Description Of Dynamics Required For In Vivo Surgical Robotics Via Kinematic Methods, Jacob G. Greenburg

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

With the goal of improved recovery times and reduced trauma to the patient there has been a substantial shift in the medical community’s demand for minimally invasive surgical (MIS) techniques. With the standardization of MIS becoming more commonplace in the medical field there are still many improvements that are desired. Traditional, manual methods of these surgeries require multiple incisions on the abdomen for the tools and instruments to be inserted. The more recent demand has been to localize the incisions into what is being referred to as a Laparoendoscopic Single-Site (LESS) surgery. Furthermore, the manual instruments that are commonly used …

Six Degree Of Freedom Miniature In Vivo Robot For Laparoendoscopic Single-Site Surgery, Ryan L. Mccormick

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The shift in surgery from open procedures to minimally invasive surgery (MIS) techniques have provided benefits of decreased recovery time, improved cosmetic results, and reduced costs. As advances in MIS move to minimize the number of external incisions, such as with Laparoendoscopic Single-Site (LESS) surgery, additional complexities are introduced. These complexities, including unintuitive controls, reduced dexterity, and limited workspace, hinder these methods from more widespread implementation in more complicated surgical procedures.

Through the use of a miniature in vivo robotic surgical platform designed for LESS surgery, these complexities can be mitigated, allowing for wider adoption of MIS by placing the …