This article presents a new sensor for use by people with spastic disorders and similar conditions and enables them to steer and control medical devices such as electric powered wheelchairs. As spastic patients often suffer from cramping of their extremities, which can then no longer be controlled, using a standard joystick while operating a powered wheelchair can lead to dangerous situations. ...

During recent decades, strain gauge-based joint torque sensors have been commonly used to provide high-fidelity torque measurements in robotics. Although measurement of joint torque/force is often required in engineering research and development, the gluing and wiring of strain gauges used as torque sensors pose difficulties during integration within the restricted space available in small join...

We evaluated the use of strain gauge plethysmography (SGP) for the assessment of orthostatic fluid shifts during head up tilt (HUT). Subjects wore a parachute harness fixed to the tilt table to avoid muscle tension in the lower limbs during HUT. 22 Healthy subjects (9 women) were tilted for 5 minutes. Calf volume changes as measured by SGP, surface EMG, heart rate and blood pressure were measur...

The structural health of airframes is often monitored by analysis of the frequency of occurrence matrix (FOOM) produced after each ight. Each cell in the matrix records a stress event of a particular severity. These matrices are used to determine how much of the aircraft's life has been used up in each ight. Unfortunately, the sensors that produce this data are subject to degradation themselves...

Simple devices are described that can facilitate student experiments on mechanical and electrical aspects of muscle contraction, for example, of isolated preparations such as frog gastrocnemius and sartorius muscles and gut. The system includes a general-purpose preparation bath that was previously described for electrophysiological observations with suction electrodes [D.M. Easton. Am.J. Physi...

The purpose of this paper is briefly to describe intra-arterial pressure recording by means of a strain gauge pressure transducert and amplifiers. The use of resistance wire strain gauges for blood pressure recording with galvanometers has already been described.1"8 The use of the strain gauge with electronic amplification as a plethysmograph has also been described.2 Since alternating input cu...

This paper presents a new vehicle classification and develops a traffic monitoring detector to provide reliable vehicle classification to aid traffic management systems. The basic principle of this approach is based on measuring the dynamic strain caused by vehicles across pavement to obtain the corresponding vehicle parameters - wheelbase and number of axles - to then accurately classify the v...

purpose : the aim of this study was to compare the rate and location of intraoperatively induced retinal breaks between two techniques of standard 20-gauge vitrectomy and transconjunctival 23-gauge using trocar/cannula methods : in this prospective comparative case series patients having attached retina before surgery who were operated for different vitreoretinal or macular conditions by standa...

UltraSTEEL material has been reported to have higher yield and ultimate strengths than plain mild steel under quasi-static loads. This project aims to study the energy absorption characteristics of UltraSTEEL thin-walled structures when subjected to axial impact loads. The numerical modelling starts from duplicating the UltraSTEEL dimpling process and defining the resultant material properties ...