Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
8.4 Example Projects
8.4.1 Umbrella
One of the projects that led to the formation of YokyWorks involved a boy
in a wheelchair with a fairly simple problem. It often rained where he went
to school, and to cross campus involved using an umbrella. Commercially
available umbrella holders for wheelchairs held the umbrella directly above
the individual. This solution initially seems reasonable. Unfortunately, the
student often found himself soaked and uncomfortable by the time he arrived
at class. The gestalt moment in the project came with the fairly obvious
realization that while we perceive rain to fall “down,” the angle of incidence
between rain and an individual after factoring in wind and velocity of travel is
almost never straight down. The team developed a readily adjustable system
that allowed the umbrella to be positioned on a wide variety of angles with
different radial orientations. This enabled the student to quickly adapt the
umbrella to the prevailing wind direction and velocity relative to his own
direction and rate of travel. In the end, he spent far fewer days focusing on
his physical discomfort in class, and more time learning.
8.4.2 Orthotic Exoskeleton
The opening remarks of this paper described the motivation for developing
an exoskeletal pneumatically actuated assistive grip device. What the person
suffering from vertebral injury needed was a simple power enhancing device
for his hand without the level of sophistication of typical research exoskeletal
devices. Our team designed a simple device that enables index/thumb pinch-
ing motion with a biceps EMG control (Fig.
8.1
). The student was then able
to grab different objects with his own volition without relying on the assis-
tant, and could eat some soft food that he longed to eat on his own. We are
proud that this project has both benefitted the individual, and lead to aca-
demic publications. Two undergraduate students who worked on this project
have successfully written a conference and a journal paper [
5
,
2
]. While this
project was more research targeted than a typical YokyWorks project, it is a
great example of the level of sophistication in engineering that YokyWorks
focuses on.
YokyWorks is actively pursuing development of several innovative projects
including a communication device for children with cerebral palsy and other
movement disorders, and devices that make writing and eating easier for
people with Parkinson's Disease.
