Automated terrain classification for electric powered wheelchairs (EPWs) has two primary motivations. First, certain terrains (e.g., sand and gravel) make wheelchair mobility more difficult. To alleviate this problem the wheelchair control system can be manually tuned for maximum speeds and/or accelerations to help adapt to various terrains. Terrain classification can then be used to automate t...

Robotic lower limb exoskeletons that can alter joint mechanical power output are novel tools for studying the relationship between the mechanics and energetics of human locomotion. We built pneumatically powered ankle exoskeletons controlled by the user's own soleus electromyography (i.e. proportional myoelectric control) to determine whether mechanical assistance at the ankle joint could reduc...

A quasi-passive leg exoskeleton is presented for load-carrying augmentation during walking. The exoskeleton has no actuators, only ankle and hip springs and a knee variabledamper. Without a payload, the exoskeleton weighs 11.7 kg and requires only 2 Watts of electrical power during loaded walking. For a 36 kg payload, we demonstrate that the quasi-passive exoskeleton transfers on average 80% of...

Numerical study is presented in this work for turbulent cavitating flow pattern simulation on a hydrofoil, using state equation of cavitation model along with combined turbulence mixed fluid based commercial software FLUENT 6.0. This solver finite volume method. Cavitating yield irregular behavior the variation values ( . focused pressure variation, vapor fraction, lift and drag forces foil sec...