A low-cost real time virtual system for postural stability assessment at home

Background and objective

The degeneration of the balance control system in the elderly and in many pathologies requires measuring the equilibrium conditions very often. In clinical practice, equilibrium control is commonly evaluated by using a force platform (stabilometric platform) in a clinical environment.In this paper, we demonstrate how a simple movement analysis system, based on a 3D video camera and a 3D real time model reconstruction of the human body, can be used to collect information usually recorded by a physical stabilometric platform.

Methods

The algorithm used to reconstruct the human body model as a set of spheres is described and discussed. Moreover, experimental measurements and comparisons with data collected by a physical stabilometric platform are also reported. The measurements were collected on a set of 6 healthy subjects to whom a change in equilibrium condition was stimulated by performing an equilibrium task.

Results

The experimental results showed that more than 95% of data collected by the proposed method were not significantly different from those collected by the classic platform, thus confirming the usefulness of the proposed system.

Conclusions

The proposed virtual balance assessment system can be implemented at low cost (about 500$) and, for this reason, can be considered a home use medical device. On the contrary, astabilometric platform has a cost of about 10,000$ and requires periodical calibration. The proposed system does not require periodical calibration, as is necessary for stabilometric force platforms, and it is easy to use. In future, the proposed system with little integration can be used, besides being an emulator of a stabilometric platform, also to recognize and track, in real time, head, legs, arms and trunk, that is to collect information actually obtained by sophisticated optoelectronic systems.     

Design of a slave arm of a surgical robot system to estimate the contact force at the tip of the employed instruments

Acquisition of the contact force at the instrument tip can enable better performance, e.g. transparency of the haptic feedback in the surgical robot systems. It is, however, difficult to measure the contact force directly due to technical limitations in attaching sensors to the tip of the instruments. This paper proposes a method to estimate the forces by installing the sensors away from the instrument tip. The proposed method employs specially designed mechanical parts of the slave robot, i.e. a slider cover plate for the z-axis translational force along the insertion direction, and docking clamps for the rotational pivot torques around the fulcrum point. Strain gauges are attached to specially designed places with enhancing shapes. The simulation results of the force estimation are presented to confirm the strain concentration area. The proposed method is validated with quantitative experimental results. Calibrated weights are determined upon the comparison of the strain value with a calibrated 6-axis force/torque sensor. The percentage error in the force calibration is about 5~8% calculated by the root mean square error (RMSE) of force-sensing performance. In addition, it can be computed by considering only the bending phase of each sensor although the hysteresis is observed from the calibration graph.     

Tactile display with tangential and normal skin displacement for robot-assisted surgery

This paper proposes a tactile display providing both shear and normal feedback to the fingertip for generating three-axis tactile feedback during teleoperation of a surgical robot. The display is composed of five balloons actuated by controlling the pneumatic pressure. The implemented display is 18?mm?×?18?mm?×?15?mm. This size is suitable for mounting the display onto the master controls of a surgical robot. The maximum normal and shear displacements are 2 and 1.3?mm, respectively. The proposed tactile display may provide perceivable stimuli to a human finger pad in all five directions: normal, distal, proximal, radial, and ulnar. This paper also reports on the results of psychophysical measurement of the minimum perceivable movement of the developed tactile display for each of the five directions.     

Surface morphology control of immiscible polymer-blend thin films

The effects of the molecular weights (molecular weight of polystyrene, M_w,PS, varying from 2.9 to 129 k) on the surface morphologies of spin-coated and annealed polystyrene/poly (methyl methacrylate) (PS/PMMA=50/50, w/w) blend films were investigated by atomic force microscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. For the spin-coated films, when the M_w,PS varied from 2.9 to 129 k, three different kinds of surface morphologies (a nanophase-separated morphology, a PMMA cellular or network-like morphology whose meshes filled with PS, a sea-island like morphology) were observed and their formation mechanisms are discussed, respectively. Upon annealing, two different morphology-evolution processes were observed. It is found that a upper PS-rich phase layer is formed when M_w,PS<4 k, and this behavior is mainly attributed to the low interfacial tension between PS and PMMA component. When M_w,PS>4 k, the PS-rich phase forms droplets on top of the PMMA-rich phase layer which wets the SiO_x substrate. These results indicate that the surface morphology of the polymer blend films can be controlled by the polymer molecular weight and annealing conditions.     

Bumpy Particle Adhesion and Removal in Turbulent Flows Including Electrostatic and Capillary Forces

The effect of electrostatic and capillary forces on bumpy particle adhesion and removal in turbulent flows is studied. We use the JKR theory and account for the increase of adhesion by capillary force. The effects of electrostatic forces and nonlinear hydrodynamic drag are included in the analyses. The criteria for incipient rolling and sliding detachments and electrostatic lifting removal are evaluated. A turbulence burst model is used for evaluating the peak air velocity near the substrate. The critical shear velocities for detaching particles of different sizes under different conditions are evaluated. The electric field strength needed for electrostatic removal of particles with different charges is also estimated. The results are compared with those obtained in the absence of the capillary force. Comparisons of the model predictions with the available experimental data are also presented.     

基于AD7884的分离脱落电连接器机械分离力测试台的设计

基于分级型模数转换器AD7884对分离脱落电连接器的分离力进行测量,采用8位单片机W77E58与之接口,进行数据处理并通过485串口传输到上位机。实现了对分离脱落电连接器的分离力进行测量,系统运行稳定,且与上位机数据交互简单、可靠。     

浅析SRT-Ⅳ裂解炉炉管弯曲及断裂原因

主要分析计算了裂解炉炉管受力情况，进而得出结论：裂解炉自身结构的相互约束力和炉管渗碳是导致炉管弯曲、断裂的主要原因，并提出了相应的解决措施。     

基于区域权函数理论的多电极电磁流量计电极设计

基于Shercliff权函数提出区域权函数概念,设计多电极电磁流量计,通过测量管道截面不同位置的弦端电压,计算各区域的轴向平均速度,实现速度分布与体积流量的测量。着重研究了流量计电极设计,选取不锈钢平头方案的多电极电磁流量计,对于阀门下游的非轴对称单相流体积流量测量精度高于±1.0%,倾斜管固—液两相流实验证明:该设计对于两相流非轴对称的速度分布测量具备可靠性。     

六维腕力传感器非线性正解耦方法设计

多维力传感器利用其多个转换单元完成测量加载于其结构上未知负载的作用效果,解耦是其设计的重要组成部分。针对传统静态线性解耦方法的不足,试图将传统线性解耦方程扩展为多项式结构,受其多元高次方式通解形式的启发,构造了一种多项式非线性静态正解耦方程,该方法无需传统线性解耦方法中的曲线拟合、逆解,不依赖以系统是线性为前提,且方程可以扩展成任意结构的多项式。实验结果表明:该方法能降低输出耦合误差。     

微孔发泡过程中聚合物/超临界CO2均相体系形成的研究

阐述以超临界CO2为发泡剂的微孔发泡中均相体系的形成过程，研究聚合物熔体和气体的混合机理，并分析影响均相体系形成过程的因素。结果表明，聚合物和气体本身的结构和性质、工艺条件、加工设备、外力场等均影响均相体系的形成，振动力场的引入可以提高多相体系的混合程度，在聚合物／气体均相体系的形成过程中引入振动力场是一个全新的研究方向。