Mechanical Engineering - Research Publications
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ItemStatic force dependency of bone conduction transducer as sensory feedback for stump-socket based prosthesis(Australian Robotics and Automation Association, 2018-01-01)The dependency of a novel sensory feedback for stump-socket based prosthesis on the static force is presented using a bone conduction transducer as feedback source. The stimulation was induced onto the bony landmarks of the elbow, specifically the Ulna and presented in an interval halving method. The perception threshold in the range of tactile and auditory perception at three different force levels has been tested. The inter subject variability is bigger than the intra subject variation. The small static force variation suggests a similar approach as in bone conduction hearing aids and therefore a static force bigger than 6N should be applied to perceive a constant stimulation. A mechanical design to include such a novel feedback into a stump-socket needs to account for this requirement. The inter subject variability needs to be addressed by incorporate some kind of person to person calibration of the gain.
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ItemMagnetic-based Soft Tactile Sensors with Deformable Continuous Force Transfer Medium for Resolving Contact Locations in Robotic Grasping and Manipulation(MDPI, 2019-11)The resolution of contact location is important in many applications in robotics and automation. This is generally done by using an array of contact or tactile receptors, which increases cost and complexity as the required resolution or area is increased. Tactile sensors have also been developed using a continuous deformable medium between the contact and the receptors, which allows few receptors to interpolate the information among them, avoiding the weakness highlighted in the former approach. The latter is generally used to measure contact force intensity or magnitude but rarely used to identify the contact locations. This paper presents a systematic design and characterisation procedure for magnetic-based soft tactile sensors (utilizing the latter approach with the deformable contact medium) with the goal of locating the contact force location. This systematic procedure provides conditions under which design parameters can be selected, supported by a selected machine learning algorithm, to achieve the desired performance of the tactile sensor in identifying the contact location. An illustrative example, which combines a particular sensor configuration (magnetic hall effect sensor as the receptor, a selected continuous medium and a selected sensing resolution) and a specific data-driven algorithm, is used to illustrate the proposed design procedure. The results of the illustrative example design demonstrates the efficacy of the proposed design procedure and the proposed sensing strategy in identifying a contact location. The resulting sensor is also tested on a robotic hand (Allegro Hand, SimLab Co) to demonstrate its application in real-world scenarios.
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ItemA Systematic Review of Clinical Functional Outcomes After Medial Stabilized Versus Non-Medial Stabilized Total Knee Joint Replacement(FRONTIERS MEDIA SA, 2018-04-11)BACKGROUND: Medial stabilized total knee joint replacement (TKJR) construct is designed to closely replicate the kinematics of the knee. Little is known regarding comparison of clinical functional outcomes of patients utilising validated patient reported outcome measures (PROM) after medial stabilized TKJR and other construct designs. PURPOSE: To perform a systematic review of the available literature related to the assessment of clinical functional outcomes following a TKJR employing a medial stabilized construct design. METHODS: The review was performed with a Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) algorithm. The literature search was performed using variouscombinations of keywords. The statistical analysis was completed using Review Manager (RevMan), Version 5.3. RESULTS: In the nineteen unique studies identified, there were 2,448 medial stabilized TKJRs implanted in 2,195 participants, there were 1,777 TKJRs with non-medial stabilized design constructs implanted in 1,734 subjects. The final mean Knee Society Score (KSS) value in the medial stabilized group was 89.92 compared to 90.76 in the non-medial stabilized group, with the final KSS mean value difference between the two groups was statistically significant and favored the non-medial stabilized group (SMD 0.21; 95% CI: 0.01 to 0.41; p = 004). The mean difference in the final WOMAC values between the two groups was also statistically significant and favored the medial stabilized group (SMD: -0.27; 95% CI: -0.47 to -0.07; p = 0.009). Moderate to high values (I2 ) of heterogeneity were observed during the statistical comparison of these functional outcomes. CONCLUSION: Based on the small number of studies with appropriate statistical analysis, we are unable to reach a clear conclusion in the clinical performance of medial stabilized knee replacement construct. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level II.