THEME

The theme for this years Senior Design projects is Rehabilitation.  Why Rehabilitation?  Well, first and foremost it is my area of interest and expertise.  And second, with the National Rehabilitation Hospital only a few blocks away, it will give you all a unique opportunity to interact with therapists, doctors, and patients to get invaluable real-life experience.  The hope is that each team will work with clinicians and therapists throughout the design process to ensure the clinical requirements of the design are identified and achieved.

The projects listed below are by no means exhaustive, but only serve as a few ideas I have thought of in recent years.  While I have provided you with a brief description and overview of each project, it is up to you to work out the rest of the design details.  Be creative, be constructive, and most of all, have fun.  If you have a strong desire to work on a project unrelated to rehabilitation, or if you have an idea different than those which I've described below, feel free to meet with me to discuss your interests.  

Be forewarned!  These projects require lots of work.  Do not wait until the end of the semester to crunch through it ... start early and set achievable timelines.  Not only will the quality of your project be better, but you'll also learn more and enjoy the course.

Project #1.  3-degrees of freedom therapeutic arm tracking device

OVERVIEW:
Each year in the United States alone, over 570,000 people survive strokes making it the leading cause of major disability (National Stroke Association, NSA).  More than 50% of stroke survivors are left with chronic motor deficits. These impairments include both sensory and motor deficits, including decreased passive range of motion (Reinkensmeyer et al., 1999), weakness (Katz and Rymer, 1989), hyperactive reflexes (Gandevia, 1993), and abnormal coordination patterns (Dewald et al, 1995).  Thus, the need for new forms of therapeutic treatments for restoring arm function has become a clinical necessity.

PROJECT:
The objective of this project is to build a multi-link device which can be used by stroke subjects to perform daily physical therapy.  This device will be used to track the position of a stroke subject's hand as they move between two points.  The endpoint of the device, which the subject will hold onto, must move in the X-Y-Z planes, and must have position sensors measuring each joint angle.  A computer will read in the positions of the joints in order to track the endpoint of the device.  Subjects who will ultimately use the device will be required to move their hand between two points, while the computer will simultaneously track the person's movement.  Computer software will be written that will read in the position of the subject's hand, and will move a cursor on the screen giving them feedback on their performance.

Project #2.  An  actuated hand exerciser

OVERVIEW:
As discussed above, individuals who suffer strokes are often left with sensory motor deficits.  In particular, hand function is often affected the most, where subjects are not able to open and close their hand with great skill.  This obviously limits the use of the hand, such that the individual often neglects using the affected hand.  This is a double edged sword as the less the individual uses their hand, the worse it becomes functionally.

PROJECT:
The objective of this project is to build an actuated glove which can open a subject's hand and be used as a form of physical therapy.  The glove will be connected to a computer, which will trigger the actuators to extend the fingers.  The glove should be setup to either open the subject's hand on its own or provide partial assistance as the subject attempts to open their hand on their own.  The goal will be to have stroke subject's practice opening and closing their hand, partially assisted if needed.  An interactive computer interface would be helpful (e.g. ball falling towards a virtual computer hand where the subject will attempt to catch the ball).

Project #3.  Portable Electromyographic (EMG) system

OVERVIEW:
Electrical signals collected from muscles provide scientists and clinicians with vital information regarding muscle activity.  One key piece of information is simply whether a muscle turns on at inappropriate times.  That is, following stroke and spinal cord injury, often times people lose the ability to control muscle activation in certain muscles, and in extreme cases, the muscles will turn on themselves spontaneously.  This presents challenges to the individual when attempting to execute a functional movement.

PROJECT:
The objective of this project is to build a portable Electromyographic (EMG) data acquisition system which can record surface electrical activity from at least two muscles.  The system should be self contained within a small enclosure, and interfaced to a computer through either the COM or Parallel port.  Software should be written that can interface with the system, including collecting the EMG data and saving it to file.  Students enrolled in EE 442 are encouraged to sign up for this project.