scholarly journals Development and Evaluation of BenchBalance: A System for Benchmarking Balance Capabilities of Wearable Robots and Their Users

Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 119
Author(s):  
Cristina Bayón ◽  
Gabriel Delgado-Oleas ◽  
Leticia Avellar ◽  
Francesca Bentivoglio ◽  
Francesco Di Tommaso ◽  
...  

Recent advances in the control of overground exoskeletons are being centered on improving balance support and decreasing the reliance on crutches. However, appropriate methods to quantify the stability of these exoskeletons (and their users) are still under development. A reliable and reproducible balance assessment is critical to enrich exoskeletons’ performance and their interaction with humans. In this work, we present the BenchBalance system, which is a benchmarking solution to conduct reproducible balance assessments of exoskeletons and their users. Integrating two key elements, i.e., a hand-held perturbator and a smart garment, BenchBalance is a portable and low-cost system that provides a quantitative assessment related to the reaction and capacity of wearable exoskeletons and their users to respond to controlled external perturbations. A software interface is used to guide the experimenter throughout a predefined protocol of measurable perturbations, taking into account antero-posterior and mediolateral responses. In total, the protocol is composed of sixteen perturbation conditions, which vary in magnitude and location while still controlling their orientation. The data acquired by the interface are classified and saved for a subsequent analysis based on synthetic metrics. In this paper, we present a proof of principle of the BenchBalance system with a healthy user in two scenarios: subject not wearing and subject wearing the H2 lower-limb exoskeleton. After a brief training period, the experimenter was able to provide the manual perturbations of the protocol in a consistent and reproducible way. The balance metrics defined within the BenchBalance framework were able to detect differences in performance depending on the perturbation magnitude, location, and the presence or not of the exoskeleton. The BenchBalance system will be integrated at EUROBENCH facilities to benchmark the balance capabilities of wearable exoskeletons and their users.

2007 ◽  
Vol 40 (11) ◽  
pp. 53
Author(s):  
BRUCE K. DIXON
Keyword(s):  
Low Cost ◽  

Author(s):  
Ramin Sattari ◽  
Stephan Barcikowski ◽  
Thomas Püster ◽  
Andreas Ostendorf ◽  
Heinz Haferkamp

Nanomaterials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 1282
Author(s):  
Ioannis Deretzis ◽  
Corrado Bongiorno ◽  
Giovanni Mannino ◽  
Emanuele Smecca ◽  
Salvatore Sanzaro ◽  
...  

The realization of stable inorganic perovskites is crucial to enable low-cost solution-processed photovoltaics. However, the main candidate material, CsPbI3, suffers from a spontaneous phase transition at room temperature towards a photo-inactive orthorhombic δ-phase (yellow phase). Here we used theoretical and experimental methods to study the structural and electronic features that determine the stability of the CsPbI3 perovskite. We argued that the two physical characteristics that favor the black perovskite phase at low temperatures are the strong spatial confinement in nanocrystalline structures and the level of electron doping in the material. Within this context, we discussed practical procedures for the realization of long-lasting inorganic lead halide perovskites.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1826 (1) ◽  
pp. 012082
Author(s):  
G F Bassous ◽  
R F Calili ◽  
C R H Barbosa

Author(s):  
Wilver Auccahuasi ◽  
Mónica Diaz ◽  
Fernando Sernaque ◽  
Edward Flores ◽  
Justiniano Aybar ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 325-334
Author(s):  
Neda Javadi ◽  
Hamed Khodadadi Tirkolaei ◽  
Nasser Hamdan ◽  
Edward Kavazanjian

The stability (longevity of activity) of three crude urease extracts was evaluated in a laboratory study as part of an effort to reduce the cost of urease for applications that do not require high purity enzyme. A low-cost, stable source of urease will greatly facilitate engineering applications of urease such as biocementation of soil. Inexpensive crude extracts of urease have been shown to be effective at hydrolyzing urea for carbonate precipitation. However, some studies have suggested that the activity of a crude extract may decrease with time, limiting the potential for its mass production for commercial applications. The stability of crude urease extracts shown to be effective for biocementation was studied. The crude extracts were obtained from jack beans via a simple extraction process, stored at room temperature and at 4 ℃, and periodically tested to evaluate their stability. To facilitate storage and transportation of the extracted enzyme, the longevity of the enzyme following freeze drying (lyophilization) to reduce the crude extract to a powder and subsequent re-hydration into an aqueous solution was evaluated. In an attempt to improve the shelf life of the lyophilized extract, dextran and sucrose were added during lyophilization. The stability of purified commercial urease following rehydration was also investigated. Results of the laboratory tests showed that the lyophilized crude extract maintained its activity during storage more effectively than either the crude extract solution or the rehydrated commercial urease. While incorporating 2% dextran (w/v) prior to lyophilization of the crude extract increased the overall enzymatic activity, it did not enhance the stability of the urease during storage.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Jorge Tadeu Fim Rosas ◽  
Francisco de Assis de Carvalho Pinto ◽  
Daniel Marçal de Queiroz ◽  
Flora Maria de Melo Villar ◽  
Rodrigo Nogueira Martins ◽  
...  

Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (12) ◽  
pp. 4166
Author(s):  
Román Fernández ◽  
María Calero ◽  
Yolanda Jiménez ◽  
Antonio Arnau

Monolithic quartz crystal microbalance (MQCM) has recently emerged as a very promising technology suitable for biosensing applications. These devices consist of an array of miniaturized QCM sensors integrated within the same quartz substrate capable of detecting multiple target analytes simultaneously. Their relevant benefits include high throughput, low cost per sensor unit, low sample/reagent consumption and fast sensing response. Despite the great potential of MQCM, unwanted environmental factors (e.g., temperature, humidity, vibrations, or pressure) and perturbations intrinsic to the sensor setup (e.g., mechanical stress exerted by the measurement cell or electronic noise of the characterization system) can affect sensor stability, masking the signal of interest and degrading the limit of detection (LoD). Here, we present a method based on the discrete wavelet transform (DWT) to improve the stability of the resonance frequency and dissipation signals in real time. The method takes advantage of the similarity among the noise patterns of the resonators integrated in an MQCM device to mitigate disturbing factors that impact on sensor response. Performance of the method is validated by studying the adsorption of proteins (neutravidin and biotinylated albumin) under external controlled factors (temperature and pressure/flow rate) that simulate unwanted disturbances.


2020 ◽  
Vol 196 ◽  
pp. 105705 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Summa ◽  
G. Tartarisco ◽  
M. Favetta ◽  
A. Buzachis ◽  
A. Romano ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Low Cost ◽  

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