Date on Master's Thesis/Doctoral Dissertation
12-2007
Document Type
Master's Thesis
Degree Name
M. Eng.
Department
Mechanical Engineering
Committee Chair
Quesada, Peter M.
Committee Co-Chair (if applicable)
Hnat, William P.
Committee Member
Lilly, John H.
Author's Keywords
Orthotic device; Joint management
Subject
Orthopedic apparatus
Abstract
Existing treatment programs and procedures are incapable of addressing the complications encountered with patients who experience spasticity and hypertonia related joint contractures. Current passive therapy procedures and devices are only capable of managing the extent of joint contractures on patients with chronic and acute onset severe neurological disorders. The project was conceived as a means to develop an active device that is capable of adapting to the state of the joint to mange the extent of contractures and to permit consideration for the prevalence of spastic activity episodes and hypertonia. The project focused on the design of the physical prototype and the controller software in order to regulate the operation of such a device. Additionally, the signal conditioning and sensor package was developed as determined to be appropriate for the requirements of the device. The operation of the device was verified in the bench-top environment in the laboratory and on human subjects in order to qualify, verify, and tune the position tracking capability of the device, spastic activity detection and rejection capability of the device, and the operation of patient controlled devices. The overall operation of the device was evaluated on a group of human subjects. Using simulated contractures and spastic activity episodes, the validity of the preliminary deterministic test data was confirmed as was the appropriate operation of the device. The end prototype devices are capable of responding to a spastic activity episode by maintaining a constant load in addition to mimicking the passive extension behavior of conventional commercial devices.
Recommended Citation
Anderson, Steven Clayton, "Design of an active orthotic device for joint management." (2007). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 40.
https://doi.org/10.18297/etd/40
