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Upper limb project

Dijkstra, E.J. (2010) Upper limb project.

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Abstract:The upper limb is used in many activities of daily living(ADL), think about feeding and personal hygiene. Impairment can lead to inability or trouble in performing these ADL. Problems with the upper limb can arise due to impairments to the neurological or musculoskeletal system. The most common clinical condition where both systems are involved is spasticity. However the pathophysiology of spasticity is not fully understood. Current research is investigating the relationships between the impairment and human functioning by measuring the patients in ADL. These measurements are used to build a model of the upper limb, creating a way to further analyse and understand the relationships between impairment and human functioning. From a systematic literature review, on upper limb movement analysis during reach and grasp movement, it became clear there are only a few studies done on upper limb kinetics. An additional search provided more kinetic data and guidelines on how to perform an upper limb movement analysis. These guidelines were used in a movement analysis of an eating movement where an eight camera Vicon system was used to collect kinematic data. The analysis protocol was kept in coherence with those found in previous studies. With the data from the literature review, a basic model of the upper extremity was build to identify problems arising from modelling of the upper limb. The model build has seven degrees of freedom, three at the shoulder, two at the elbow and two at the wrist. Scapular movement was not taken in account due to its complexity. Every degree of freedom is represented by a revolute joint and the coordinate systems in the joints are described using the Denavit-Hartenberg convention. Matlab and Matlab Simulink were used to build an inverse and forward dynamics model. During the simulations, crucial elements in forward dynamics are found to be the initial conditions, the time step, and the integration algorithm used. Also the order of the revolute joints turned out to influence the behaviour of the model especially for shoulder adduction movement. This is primarily related to the method for defining the coordinate frames in the revolute joints. Multi joint movement showed instability when one of the segments became an inverted pendulum. When proceeding with modelling of the upper extremity, it is recommended to use a different method for programming the model because of restrictions within Matlab Simulink. A more thorough literature search on modelling should be performed to make mature choices in the method and algorithms to use. A feedback loop should be implemented in the forward dynamics to prevent unwanted behaviour. Getting the skeletal model working means a step closer to the final goal of using an upper limb model to predict treatment outcome. However before this final goal is reached, muscle and neurological models should be implemented. Muscle and neurological models will help understand the relationships between impairment and human functioning as it can be used to simulate impaired human movement.
Item Type:Internship Report (Master)
Clients:
Orlau
Keele University
Faculty:ET: Engineering Technology
Subject:52 mechanical engineering
Programme:Mechanical Engineering MSc (60439)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/60134
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