Publications – Robotics Center

HGN Publishes Paper in MDPI Sensors

For this study, seven transfemoral amputee subjects walked on an ambulation circuit while wearing A-mode ultrasound transducers, IMU sensors, and their passive prosthesis. Our results show that A- mode ultrasound can classify ambulation mode with comparable, and in some cases, superior accuracy to mechanical sensing.his suggests that A-mode ultrasound provides additional useful information about the user’s gait beyond what is provided by mechanical sensors, and that it may be able to improve ambulation mode classification. The manuscript can be downloaded freely at this link: Sensors | Free Full-Text | Ambulation Mode Classification of Individuals with Transfemoral Amputation through A-Mode Sonomyography and...

Learning from Prosthesis Users

During a recent workshop at the IEEE World Haptics 2023 Conference assistant professor Edoardo Battaglia from the department of mechanical engineering flipped the script on the typical academic workshop. Rather than he and his colleague giving a presentation or tutorial, they brought in prosthetic users to teach the scientists about the everyday experiences of an upper limb prosthetics user. Following the event, four of the five prosthesis users joined in as coauthors on a paper, sharing their specific experiences. That paper is now being published in Science Robotics, part of the Science family of journals, which covers the “latest technological advances and...

Kuntz Lab Published in Science Robotics

The Kuntz Lab paper, “Autonomous medical needle steering in vivo” has been published in Science Robotics....

HGN Lab Published Paper in IEEE Transaction on Biomedical Engineering

Volitional control systems for powered prostheses require the detection of user intent to operate in real-life scenarios. Ambulation mode classification has been proposed to address this issue. However, these approaches introduce discrete labels to the otherwise continuous task which is ambulation. An alternative approach is to provide users with direct, voluntary control of the powered prosthesis motion. In this study, we show that a small and lightweight A-mode ultrasound system can continuously predict prosthesis joint kinematics in seven individuals with transfemoral amputation across different ambulation tasks. Features from the A-mode ultrasound signals were mapped to the user’s prosthesis kinematics...

Kuntz Lab Paper Published in IEEE RA-L

Kuntz Lab paper, “Toward Continuum Robot Tentacles for Lung Interventions: Exploring Folding Support Disks” has been published in the IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L)....

HGN Lab Published Paper in Springer Nature Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation

Passive prostheses are able to dissipate limited amounts of energy using resistive damper systems during “negative energy” tasks like sit-down. Consequently, users are forced to over-compensate with their upper body, residual hip, and intact leg. In contrast, powered prosthetic joints are controlled by motors, which can produce higher levels of resistance at a larger range of joint positions than passive damper systems. In this study, we found that a powered knee-ankle prosthesis significantly improved weight-bearing symmetry during sit-down compared to passive prostheses. However, we did not observe a corresponding decrease in intact-limb muscle effort. These results indicate that powered...

Kuntz Lab Paper Published in IEEE TMRB Journal

Kuntz Lab paper, “Screw-tip Soft Magnetically Steerable Needles” has been published in the IEEE Transactions on Medical Robotics and Bionics (TMRB) journal....

HGN Lab Publishes in IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering

Lower-limb-powered prostheses can provide users with volitional control of ambulation. To this end, they require a sensing modality that reliably interprets user intention to move. Ultrasound has been shown to have better resolution and specificity than surface EMG. However, this technology has yet to be integrated into lower-limb prostheses. In this paper, we show that A-mode ultrasound sensing can reliably predict the prosthesis walking kinematics of individuals with a transfemoral amputation. Ultrasound features from the residual limb of 9 transfemoral amputee subjects were recorded with A-mode ultrasound during walking with their passive prosthesis. The manuscript is freely available at this...

HGN Lab Publishes Paper in MDPI Actuators

Torque-sensitive transmissions have emerged as promising solutions to meet this need by significantly increasing actuator efficiency and power density, but their modeling and analysis remain an open research topic. In this paper, we introduce the sensitivity between input displacement and output torque as a key metric to analyze the performance of these complex mechanisms in dynamic tasks. Our results show that sensitivity analysis is a valuable tool for designers to systematically analyze and create transmission systems capable of human-like physical behavior. The manuscript can be downloaded freely at this link: Actuators | Free Full-Text | Analysis and Validation of Sensitivity...

Utah Bionic Leg in Science Robotics

The Utah Bionic Leg, a motorized prosthetic for lower-limb amputees developed by University of Utah mechanical engineering associate professor Tommaso Lenzi and his students in the HGN Lab, is on the cover of the newest issue of Science Robotics. Science Robotics is part of the Science family of journals and covers the “latest technological advances and for the critical social, ethical and policy issues surrounding robotics.” Read more…....