The primary goal of human locomotion is to stably translate the center of mass (CoM) over the ground with minimum expenditure of energy. Pelvic movement is crucial for walking because the human CoM is located close to the pelvic center. Because of this anatomical feature, pelvic motion directly contributes to the metabolic expenditure, as well as in the balance to keep the center of mass between the legs. An abnormal pelvic motion during the gait not only causes overexertion, but also adversely affects the motion of the trunk and lower limbs. In order to study different interventions, recently a cable-actuated robotic system called Tethered Pelvic Assist Device (TPAD) was developed at ROAR laboratory at Columbia University. The cable-actuated system has a distinct advantage of applying three dimensional forces on the pelvis at discrete points in the gait cycle in contrast to rigid exoskeletons that restrict natural pelvic motion and add extra inertia from the rigid linkages. However, in order to effectively use TPAD for rehabilitation purposes, we still need to have a better understanding of how human gait is affected by different forces applied by TPAD on the pelvis. In the present dissertation, three different control methodologies for TPAD are discussed by performing human experiments with healthy subjects and patients with gait deficits. Moreover, the corresponding changes in the biomechanics during TPAD training are studied to understand how TPAD mechanistically influences the quality of the human gait. In Chapter 2, an ‘assist-as-needed’ controller is implemented to guide and correct the pelvic motion in three dimensions. Here, TPAD applies the correction force based on the deviation of the current position of the pelvic center from a pre-defined target trajectory. This force acts on the pelvic center to guide it towards the target trajectory. A subject in the device experiences a force field, where the magnitude becomes larger when the subject deviates further away from the target trajectory. This control strategy is tested by performing the experiments on healthy subjects with different target pelvic trajectories. Chapter 3 describes a robotic resistive training study using a continuous force on the pelvis to strengthen the weak limbs so that subjects can improve their walking. This study is designed to improve the abnormal gait of children with Cerebral Palsy (CP) who have a crouch gait. Crouch gait is caused by a combination of weak extensor muscles that do not produce adequate muscle forces to keep the posture upright, coupled with contraction of muscles that limit the joint range of motion. Among the extensor muscles, the soleus muscle acts as the major weight-bearing muscle to prevent the knees from collapsing forward during the middle of the stance phase when the foot is on the ground. Electromyography, kinematics, and clinical measurements of the patients with crouch gait show significant improvements in the gait quality after the resistive TPAD training performed over five weeks. Both Chapters 2 & 3 present interventions that are bilaterally applied on both legs. Chapter 4 introduces a training strategy that can be used for patients who have impairments in only one leg which results in manifests as asymmetric weight-bearing while walking. This training method is designed to improve the asymmetric weight bearing of the hemiparetic patients who overly rely on the stronger leg. The feasibility of this training method is tested by experiments with healthy subjects, where the controller creates an asymmetric force field to bring asymmetry in weight bearing during walking. In summary, the present dissertation is devoted to developing new training methods that utilize TPAD for rehabilitation purposes and characterize the responses of different force interventions by investigating the resulting biomechanics. We believe that these methodologies with TPAD can be used to improve abnormal gait patterns that are often observed in cerebral palsy or stroke patients.

Idag finns få studier gällande könsskillnader inom hörselvården, däremot finns forskning inom andra vårdområden. Hörselvården består bland annat av rehabilitering, där den tekniska hörselrehabiliteringen är en stor del. Den innefattar främst utprovning av hörapparater och hörseltekniska hjälpmedel.    Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka om det finns några skillnader mellan män och kvinnor gällande den tekniska hörselrehabiliteringen.    Metoden för studien är kvantitativ och deskriptiv. En journalgenomgång inom ett enskilt landsting genomfördes. Totalt ingick patientjournaler för 56 personer i undersökningen. Av dessa var 27 kvinnor och 29 män. Vid journalgenomgången användes ett protokoll där olika punkter gällande patientens förutsättningar och behov togs upp.    Resultatet visar inga tydliga skillnader avseende kön gällande den tekniska hörselrehabiliteringen. Det finns dock tendenser till att fler kvinnor får en unilateral hörapparatanpassning jämfört med män. Resultatet visar att få avancerade hörapparater och hörseltekniska hjälpmedel förskrivits till patienter. Patienternas behov enligt rehabiliteringsplanen varierade mycket och ingen skillnad kunde ses gällande hörapparatsegment varken inom könen eller när könen jämfördes med varandra.    Inga märkbara skillnader i den tekniska hörselrehabiliteringen kunde hittas mellan könen. Mer forskning skulle behövas på området, både gällande hörapparatsegment samt vilka hörseltekniska hjälpmedel som förskrivs och varför. Även en liknande studie med ett större urval skulle behövas.

Thesis (M.Eng.(Engineering and Technology Management))-University of Pretoria, 2007. / Abstract in English. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--Oregon State University, 2009. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 68-71). Also available on the World Wide Web.

A fratura da extremidade distal do rádio é o tipo de lesão mais comum encontrada nos departamentos de emergência ortopédica. Requer reabilitação efetiva que pode ser feita com contribuições de tecnologias atuais. Para isto foi construído um sistema mecatrônico móvel e interativo a partir de conhecimentos de especialistas na área da saúde e engenharia. O sistema foi testado em trinta pessoas saudáveis, sendo eles profissionais das áreas citadas e a população mais acometida: homens jovens e mulheres pós-menopausa. Os dados obtidos foram analisados, assim como as pistas sociais apresentadas pelos participantes. Após os testes todos responderam um questionário para avaliar o sistema. Os resultados mostraram que o sistema cumpre grande parte dos requisitos necessários para a reabilitação, mas precisa de melhorias. / Distal radius fracture is the most common type of injury found in emergency of orthopedic department. It requires effective rehabilitation that can be made with contributions of current technologies. For this, a mobile and interactive mechatronic system was built from the expertise of specialists in healthcare and engineering. The system was tested in thirty healthy people, the professionals of these areas and the population most affected: young men and postmenopausal women. The data and the social cues presented by the participants were analyzed. They answered a questionnaire to evaluate the system. The results showed that the system meets many rehabilitation requirements, but improvements are necessary.

M.Sc. / This study focuses on the rehabilitation of borrow pits on linear pipeline projects. In the past there have been many attempts to rehabilitate borrow pits to an ecological acceptable manner. Recently legislation has become more stringent regarding mine closure and rehabilitation. With the introduction of the new Mineral and Petroleum Development Act (MPRDA 28 of 2002), there has been an increase of awareness towards the immediate environment. As this project was a challenge in itself, there were no clear and concise methods in the Act that provide guidelines for final rehabilitation. Normally borrow pits as used on road concessions for material sourcing is left as different landforms like before excavation. The main reason for this is that materials are removed from the pits and not replaced, resulting in areas that are usually lower than their original ground levels. Some unwanted screened material will return to these borrow pits but will not complement what the original level should be. These borrow pits are usually clearly visible as low lying areas filled with water alongside roads. The Vaal River Eastern Subsection Augmentation Project (VRESAP) pipeline borrow pits were unique in the sense that not only material from screening activities were replaced, but also material excavated from the trench were replaced into the borrow pits. What makes this study unique is the fact that an opportunity was presented and clearly stipulated by the standard environmental management plan (SEMP) that borrow pits had to be filled back to their original ground levels or an acceptable level agreed on by the landowner. With this unique project, unique problems arose causing excess material amounting to 327 700 m³, available from the pipeline cavity. External spoil areas had to be promulgated and managed as part of site. This study through its various elements addresses some of the main problems encountered on VRESAP by looking at soil analysis, monitoring regimes, pre and post land use and other mechanisms from literature studies used on similar projects in the mining industry. vii The study also provides recommendations to the reader for future pipeline developments as well as conclusions made by the author. The recommendations made, include ways of rehabilitation planning through trials and errors made on site. Various conclusions were made that would substantiate this study in perspective to user-friendly and practical approaches.

Moving the head-neck freely is an everyday task that a healthy person takes for granted. Such a simple movement, however, may be very challenging for individuals with neurological disorders such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. These individuals often do not have enough neck muscle strength to stabilize the head at the upright neutral or to move it in a controlled manner. Static braces are commonly prescribed to these patients. However, these braces often fix the head at a single configuration, which makes them uncomfortable to wear for an extended period of time. In this thesis, a robotic neck brace is developed. It accommodates three rotations and covers roughly 70% range of motion of the head-neck of a typical able-bodied adult. The hardware is lightweight (1.5 kilogram) and wearable, with a pair of pads and a soft band attached to the shoulders and the forehead, respectively. A parallel mechanism connecting the shoulder pads and the headband was designed to meet the empirical human movement data. This design choice is novel where the parasitic motion (translation of the head) was parameterized and optimized to address misalignment between the robot and the user's head. A user can control this neck brace to assist intended head-neck movement through input devices, including hand-held joysticks, keyboards, and eye-trackers. This provides a potential solution to remediate head drop. Additionally, this robotic brace is developed into a versatile platform to train and study head-neck movements. The robot was designed to be highly transparent to the user and features different force controllers. Therefore, it can be used to assess the free movement of the head-neck and mimic different interactions between a therapist and a patient. The modalities of this neck brace have been validated with different users. To the best of our knowledge, this robotic neck brace is the first in the literature to assist, train, and study head-neck movements.

A fratura da extremidade distal do rádio é o tipo de lesão mais comum encontrada nos departamentos de emergência ortopédica. Requer reabilitação efetiva que pode ser feita com contribuições de tecnologias atuais. Para isto foi construído um sistema mecatrônico móvel e interativo a partir de conhecimentos de especialistas na área da saúde e engenharia. O sistema foi testado em trinta pessoas saudáveis, sendo eles profissionais das áreas citadas e a população mais acometida: homens jovens e mulheres pós-menopausa. Os dados obtidos foram analisados, assim como as pistas sociais apresentadas pelos participantes. Após os testes todos responderam um questionário para avaliar o sistema. Os resultados mostraram que o sistema cumpre grande parte dos requisitos necessários para a reabilitação, mas precisa de melhorias. / Distal radius fracture is the most common type of injury found in emergency of orthopedic department. It requires effective rehabilitation that can be made with contributions of current technologies. For this, a mobile and interactive mechatronic system was built from the expertise of specialists in healthcare and engineering. The system was tested in thirty healthy people, the professionals of these areas and the population most affected: young men and postmenopausal women. The data and the social cues presented by the participants were analyzed. They answered a questionnaire to evaluate the system. The results showed that the system meets many rehabilitation requirements, but improvements are necessary.

Hand rehabilitation after injury or illness may allow a patient to regain full or at least partial use of a limb. However, rehabilitation often requires the patient to perform multiple repetitions of motions. While absolutely essential to regaining usage, such exercises are not always mentally engaging or enjoyable for the patient. The loss or degradation of the use of the hands can cause considerable loss of independence. In this dissertation, we present Mobile Music Touch (MMT), a wireless glove paired with a computing device, such as a laptop, smart phone, or MP3 player. The MMT system plays a song, while also "tapping" the fingers using vibration motors to indicate the correct finger to use to play the song on a piano keyboard. Learning a new skill or activity without active focus, an idea called Passive Haptic Learning(PHL) may allow an individual to learn one skill through their sense of touch while performing another, unrelated activity. Most rehabilitation activities are active in nature, requiring the focused participation of the injured person. Passive rehabilitation is the idea that some technologies and activities may bring about beneficial changes without the active engagement of the injured person. In order to study the concepts of PHL and PHR, we propose the Mobile Music Touch (MMT) system. We show that using passive rehabilitation in conjunction with the active rehabilitation of piano playing will bring about a greater degree of improvement in the hands than that achieved using only active rehabilitation. This dissertation research makes three unique contributions. First, we demonstrate that Passive Haptic Learning (PHL) using just the sense of touch is feasible and provides a form of learning and reinforcement of learned skills and tasks. Second, we identify the attributes and design features of a glove suited for long term wear by persons who use a manual wheelchair for mobility. Third, we show that Passive Haptic Rehabilitation (PHR) is possible using vibrotactile stimulation of the hands in persons classified as tetraplegic due to incomplete spinal cord injury.

O advento de novas tecnologias tem contribuído para avanços na captura de movimento e sua aplicação exercícios físicos. A utilização da tecnologia de captura de movimentos é atrativa devido a seu baixo custo de aquisição de hardware. Os tratamentos convencionais em fisioterapia são, na sua maioria, de longa duração e repetitivos, o que faz o paciente encarar como algo cansativo e desestimulante, percepção essa que interfere na eficácia terapêutica. Com relação ao levantamento de peso, os jovens atletas têm lesões que podem deixá-los de fora das competições, e algumas destas lesões pode ocorrer devido à falta dos princípios básicos do treinamento do peso. Um sistema de monitoramento pode proporcionar um melhor controle dos pacientes/atletas durante a sessão de tratamento ou treinamento, por meio da monitorização contínua. Esta dissertação apresenta um software para área da fisioterapia e levantamento de peso olímpico, visando auxiliar o fisioterapeuta/treinador no monitoramento dos exercícios executados pelos pacientes/atletas. O BH-Tracking - BioHealth Tracking está disponível, inclusive seu código fonte, sob a licença GNU GPL (General Public License). O software foi implementado com tecnologias de controle por gestos, mapeando o corpo do paciente/atleta e rastreando o exercício durante sua execução. A base do seu funcionamento está no sistema de validação do exercício por comparação de ângulos e referências dos pontos corporais, com modelos de movimentos corretos previamente armazenados. O software fornece, também, o feedback da evolução do paciente ou do atleta analisado, comparando os movimentos de um mesmo exercício ao longo do tratamento/treinamento. / The advent of new technologies has contributed to advances in motion capture and its physical exercise application. The use of motion capture technology is attractive due to its low cost of hardware acquisition. Conventional treatments in physiotherapy are, for the most part, longlasting and repetitive, which makes the patient see it as tiring and discouraging, a perception that interferes with therapeutic efficacy. With regard to weight lifting, young athletes have injuries that may leave them out of competitions, and some of these injuries may occur due to lack of basic principles of weight training. A monitoring system can provide better patient/athlete control during the treatment or training session through continuous monitoring. This dissertation presents software for the area of physiotherapy and Olympic weightlifting, aiming to assist the physiotherapist/coach in monitoring the exercises performed by the patients/athletes. BHTracking - BioHealth Tracking is available, including its source code, under the GNU General Public License (GPL). The software was implemented with gesture control technologies, mapping the patient/athlete’s body and tracking the exercise during its execution. The basis of its functioning is in the system of validation of the exercise by comparison of angles and references of the body points, with models of correct movements previously stored. The software also provides feedback on the evolution of the patient or athlete analyzed, comparing the movements of the same exercise throughout the treatment/training.