abstract: Fall accident is a significant problem associated with our society both in terms of economic losses and human suffering [1]. In 2016, more than 800,000 people were hospitalized and over 33,000 deaths resulted from falling. Health costs associated with falling in 2016 yielded at 33% of total medical expenses in the US- mounting to approximately $31 billion per year. As such, it is imperative to find intervention strategies to mitigate deaths and injuries associated with fall accidents. In order for this goal to be realized, it is necessary to understand the mechanisms associated with fall accidents and more specifically, the movement profiles that may represent the cogent behavior of the locomotor system that may be amendable to rehabilitation and intervention strategies. In this light, this Thesis is focused on better understanding the factors influencing dynamic stability measure (as measured by Lyapunov exponents) during over-ground ambulation utilizing wireless Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU). Four pilot studies were conducted: the First study was carried out to verify if IMU system was sophisticated enough to determine different load-carrying conditions. Second, to test the effects of walking inclinations, three incline levels on gait dynamic stability were examined. Third, tested whether different sections from the total gait cycle can be stitched together to assess LDS using the laboratory collected data. Finally, the fourth study examines the effect of “stitching” the data on dynamic stability measure from a longitudinally assessed (3-day continuous data collection) data to assess the effects of free-range data on assessment of dynamic stability. Results indicated that load carrying significantly influenced dynamic stability measure but not for the floor inclination levels – indicating that future use of such measure should further implicate normalization of dynamic stability measures associated with different activities and terrain conditions. Additionally, stitching method was successful in obtaining dynamic stability measure utilizing free-living IMU data. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Biomedical Engineering 2017

O mecanismo Plataforma de Stewart é um manipulador do tipo paralelo, com seis graus de liberdade, boa relação peso/carga e alta rigidez. Tais características conferem a este tipo de manipulador propriedades superiores de precisão em relação aos manipuladores seriais. Neste trabalho, o controle de um Manipulador Plataforma de Stewart (MPS) acionado por atuadores hidráulicos é estudado com o objetivo de compensação de movimentos para viabilização de transferência de cargas e pessoas em ambiente naval.Visando ao desenvolvimento de um protótipo experimental, o manipulador é estudado considerando a situação em que se encontra sobreposto a um segundo MPS que tem por objetivo simular o movimento da maré, sendo ambos MPS considerados desacoplados dinamicamente. Neste contexto, o estudo envolve a análise cinemática e dinâmica do manipulador incluindo, também, a dinâmica dos cilindros hidráulicos. Além disso, são estudadas unidades de medição inercial (IMU) utilizando-as como instrumento para medição do movimento da base a ser compensado. O projeto do controlador do sistema de atenuação de movimento faz uso da técnica de Torque Computado (TC). A análise de estabilidade, feita separadamente para o sistema mecânico e hidráulico, baseou-se da teoria de Lyapunov. Simulações realizadas considerando trajetórias similares às do movimento de um navio são utilizadas. Para compensação do movimento são utilizados, também, sinais provenientes de uma IMU. Por meio de simulação, comprova-se que o sistema proposto é capaz de compensar adequadamente os movimentos da base estudados. / The Stewart platform mechanism is a parallel manipulator with six degrees of freedom, high load/weight ratio and high stifness. These properties give them a better accuracy when compared to serial manipulators. This work focuses on study of electrohydraucally Stewart Platform Manipulators (MPS) to enable compensation of vessels motions for load and personell transfer in sea. Aimed at developing an experimental prototype, a second MPS is placed underneath the rst MPS to simulate vessels motions and so both manipulators are considered dynamically decoupled. In this sense, the kinematics and dynamics of this manipulator are presented, as well as a mathematical model of the hydraulic actuator. Furthermore, special attention is given to the study of inertial measurement units (IMU) which is used as an instrument for measuring the motion to be compensated. Controller design for the compensation system is developed considering compute torque theory which consider the system separated in two: mechanical and hydraulic. The Lyapunov criteria is used to guarantee closed loop stability for each subsystem. Simulations are performed considering similar vessel motions. Signals provided from a comercial IMU are used for motion compensation. The control compensation performance is veri ed by means of computer simulations.

The work described in this thesis contributes to the development of a system to evaluate sailing performance. This work was motivated by the lack of tools available to evaluate sailing performance. The goal of the work presented is to detect and classify the turns of a sailing yacht. Data was collected using a BlackBerry PlayBook affixed to a J/24 sailing yacht. This data was manually annotated with three types of turn: tack, gybe, and mark rounding. This manually annotated data was used to train classification methods. Classification methods tested were multi-layer perceptrons (MLPs) of two sizes in various committees and nearest- neighbour search. Pre-processing algorithms tested were Kalman filtering, categorization using quantiles, and residual normalization. The best solution was found to be an averaged answer committee of small MLPs, with Kalman filtering and residual normalization performed on the input as pre-processing.

The primary focus of this research is evaluation of feasibility, applicability, and accuracy of Doppler Light Detection And Ranging (LIDAR) sensors as non-contact means for measuring track speed, distance traveled, and curvature. Speed histories, currently measured with a rotary, wheel-mounted encoder, serve a number of useful purposes, one significant use involving derailment investigations. Distance calculation provides a spatial reference system for operators to locate track sections of interest. Railroad curves, using an IMU to measure curvature, are monitored to maintain track infrastructure within regulations. Speed measured with high accuracy leads to high-fidelity distance and curvature data through utilization of processor clock rate and left-and right-rail speed differentials during curve navigation, respectively. Wheel-mounted encoders, or tachometers, provide a relatively low-resolution speed profile, exhibit increased noise with increasing speed, and are subject to the inertial behavior of the rail car which affects output data. The IMU used to measure curvature is dependent on acceleration and yaw rate sensitivity and experiences difficulty in low-speed conditions. Preliminary system tests onboard a 'Hy-Rail' utility vehicle capable of traveling on rail show speed capture is possible using the rails as the reference moving target and furthermore, obtaining speed profiles from both rails allows for the calculation of speed differentials in curves to estimate degrees curvature. Ground truth distance calibration and curve measurement were also carried out. Distance calibration involved placement of spatial landmarks detected by a sensor to synchronize distance measurements as a pre-processing procedure. Curvature ground truth measurements provided a reference system to confirm measurement results and observe alignment variation throughout a curve. Primary testing occurred onboard a track geometry rail car, measuring rail speed over substantial mileage in various weather conditions, providing high-accuracy data to further calculate distance and curvature along the test routes. Tests results indicate the LIDAR system measures speed at higher accuracy than the encoder, absent of noise influenced by increasing speed. Distance calculation is also high in accuracy, results showing high correlation with encoder and ground truth data. Finally, curvature calculation using speed data is shown to have good correlation with IMU measurements and a resolution capable of revealing localized track alignments. Further investigations involve a curve measurement algorithm and speed calibration method independent from external reference systems, namely encoder and ground truth data. The speed calibration results show a high correlation with speed data from the track geometry vehicle. It is recommended that the study be extended to provide assessment of the LIDAR's sensitivity to car body motion in order to better isolate the embedded behavior in the speed and curvature profiles. Furthermore, in the interest of progressing the system toward a commercially viable unit, methods for self-calibration and pre-processing to allow for fully independent operation is highly encouraged. / Ph. D.

Many surveying engineering applications require the knowledge of the orientation parameters of instruments. One can use inertial measurement units (IMUs) to determine that. IMUs are combinations of several inertial sensors and comprise at least an accelerometer and a gyroscope. Therefore, they can detect accelerations and angular rates in a three-dimensional space. As micro-electro-mechanical systems, the sensors are increasingly getting smaller and lighter, but without being reduced in their accuracy. The smaller size facilitates diverse placing of the sensors, which allows a variety of uses. Moreover, several low-cost IMUs have been devised since the development of single-board computers. The main objectives of this work are to determine tilts using a low-cost IMU, and the accuracy of the sensor. Furthermore, it studies general IMU applications in surveying engineering, and examines whether low-cost versions are applicable. To fulfil the objectives, the study was based on a selected low-cost IMU. Two programs were developed as part of this work. One was to control the sensor and the other, to calculate the tilts and analyse the data. The IMU was mounted in front of the objective of the total station and aligned in different reference orientations. All measurements were performed under controlled thermal conditions. Thereby, it was ensured that no falsifications could appear due to ambient temperature influences. As a first step, the sensor calibration process was completed. It helped determine the signal offset parameter and their time-dependent change. The calibration was done using two present methods, the six-position and the multi-position methods. The calibrated IMU helped determine the tilts. This was done in the case of the accelerometer via trigonometric functions, which allowed an absolute orientation statement. In contrast, the gyroscope provided relative orientation with the multiplication of the detected angular variance and the time that passed. After that, a target-actual comparison with the reference information of the total station helped determine the external accuracy of the tilt from the IMU. Moreover, multiple measurements could give a statement of the internal accuracy. Finally, the Kalman Filter was added to smooth out the sensor data and combine it in real-time. The calibration methods showed similar results, and it was striking that the sensors did not show the expected drifts. The reason could be related to a pre-calibration by the manufacturer. On the one hand, the used IMU showed differences in the total station alignments in the order of 0.798° for the accelerometer and up to 4.3° for the gyroscope with the calibrated data. On the other, the differences in repeated measurements were at 0.024° for the accelerometer and 0.5° for the gyroscope. It was figured out different possible applications of IMUs in surveying engineering. Among other things, these included orientation monitoring of sensor platforms or the determination of the external orientation of unmanned aerial systems. For these applications, the usability depends on the achievable accuracy. In the case of the IMU chosen in this study, the proven accuracy is too inaccurate for these applications. There is a need for further investigation because the use of another sensor type may rectify the insufficient accuracy problem. Moreover, to achieve better accuracies and to make it possible to use the IMU in different ambient temperatures, the temperature influence must be determined.

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Inertial measurement units (IMUs) and wearable sensors have enabled athlete monitoring and research to become more ecologically valid due to their small size and low cost. IMUs and accelerometers that are placed on the body close to the point of impact and that record at sufficiently high frequencies have demonstrated the highest validity when measuring temporal gait event moments such as ground contact time (GCT) and flight time (FT) as well as peak forces (PF) during upright running. While the use of IMUs has increased in the sport performance and athlete monitoring realm, the potential of the technology’s ability to estimate running force-time curves utilizing the two-mass model (TMM) remains unexplored. The purpose of this study was two-fold. First, was to determine the validity of measuring temporal gait events and peak forces utilizing a commercially available shank-mounted inertial measurement unit. Second, was to determine the validity of force-time curves generated from the TMM utilizing data from shank-mounted inertial measurement units. Ten subjects voluntarily completed submaximal treadmill tests equipped with a force plate while wearing shank-mounted IMUs on each leg. Using the raw data from the IMUs, GCT, FT, total step time (ST), PF, and two-mass model-based force-time (F-t) curves were generated for 25 steps at 8 different speeds. Paired sample T-tests were performed on the gait events and peak force between the IMU and treadmill with both individual step comparison and averages per each speed. 95% confidence intervals were calculated for each timepoint of the force time curves. No statistically significant differences (p > 0.05) and nearly perfect relationships were observed for the step averages for each speed with FT, ST, and PF. Confidence intervals of the corrected mean difference suggest that F-t curves calculated from the TMM may not be valid when assessing the running population as a whole. When performing a sub-group analysis of skilled runners and recreational runners, F-t curves derived from shank-mounted IMUs may be more valid in skilled runners than recreational runners. In skilled runners, the 95% CI for the mean difference contained zero within the first 60% of the GCT duration, whereas the 95% CI recreational runners contained a zero-value in a smaller percentage of the GCT located only in the middle of the GCT at the curve peak height. The results of this study suggest that interchangeability between shank-mounted IMUs and force plates may be very limited when estimating temporal gait events and kinetics. While agreement was low between F-t curves after the peak in skilled runners, use of shank-mounted IMUs to estimate F-t curves may have several benefits still in skilled runners when assessing peak forces and force development from initial contact until peak force.

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