Brazil Trip Day 6: Choice Numero Uno!

Like I mentioned in my last post I have four choices of lab projects I can work on independently while also working on the group rocket program. I thought I'd take a day this week for each project and fill you in on what they are about. I can only disclose what's already been made public but its still incredibly interesting.

I'll start off by talking about the lab. There are currently about 20 students in the lab. 10 I know because I've seen them and 6 I know because I work with them. I don't know them by name but I can tell you there nick names since that is what we use around the lab. They are all grad students except one.

1. "Gogino" means the stutterer, since he use to stutter

2. "Pi" like the the math pi i.e. 3.14.....

3. "Little Gas Station" not sure and afraid to ask

4. "Mariana" the only grad student girl in the lab. We call her by her name lol.

5. "Doo Doo" its suppose to be a nick name for people whoms names are Eduardo

6. "Freshman Beckam" They call him this because he is a freshman and speaks english really well like what they think David Beckam would sound like.

Our Proff is Geovany. He is a brilliant man, so brilliant that his PHD mentor in france told an audience at an international electrical engineering conference that he was the smartest and brightest student he has ever had in his entire career as a professor. Talk about an honor.

Any who here is the man himself:

Anyways for my first choice as an independent project I have a prosthetic foot. What's incredible about it is that fact that its the first prosthetic foot that takes into account ankle movement and foot position parallel to the ground. I'll spare you the technical mumbo jumbo as how its all done(Trust me I can drop some serious mumbo jumbo on this, since I read about it today for the past 9 hours).

So the idea behind it is that it has 3 motors and each controls a different section of the leg. The first motor is for the knee and enables the prosthetic to move the leg like you would when you are walking. Here's a vid on this motor in action:

So its has the typical knee motor, current prosthetics just use a spring to replicate this movement. Nice that it has a motor but no biggie. But what really sets it apart are the next two motors.

The next two motors are for the ankle movements. As of yet no other prosthetics research group has taken into consideration the importance of the ankle. Using infrared sensors they have programmed two motors to actuate and keep the foot parallel to the ground. This is great accomplishment because not only is it difficult to do but image the importance of this.

Example 1: You are walking and your trip

Old Prosthetic: You fall

New Prosthetic: the foot automatically rights its self while the sole aligns perfectly parallel to the ground. I.E. You keep walking

Example 2: Running

Old Prosthetic: You hobble uncontrollably more like fast walking than running, Lots of impact pressure.

New Prosthetic: Ankle muscles push off like normal and supports weight as you run forward like normal

Check this vid out on the foot moving to the ground location. Its both amazing and jaw dropping. It will give you a better Idea of what I mean.

My job in this project is to take the the leg you see here:

Which has large motors and many components and turn it into something as slim as this(minus the motor sticking out the side):

I would be accomplishing this by using smaller but similarly powerful motors and instead of multiple boards I'll be reprogramming one small board to accomplish what all 3 motors boards for the motors and the two extra boards do. Along with this I will also be expanding the project by connecting a sensor that go's on the users other leg(assuming it's not missing) so that as the user moves that leg the prosthetic can react and move the other depending on what the user is doing. For example if the user takes a step forward the prosthetic follows. If he pivots the prosthetic responds to the pivoting ect ect ect. I may also apply the sensors I've been working on at the UW for picking up nerve signals to allow for movement even if both legs are lost directly from the nerves. However, they have never been tested on legs and on bidirectional signals so It will be a great way to expand my research with this project as well.

Overall though this is very exciting work and a subject I am very interested in. However, there are 3 more choices and tomorrow I will spend my time reading on the other projects while programming a few micro-controllers for the rocket project.