Abstract

The BUILD (Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity) program is a research program funded by NIH for undergraduates wanting to pursue advance degrees in health related fields. This program is geared towards students with diverse backgrounds to provide them with training, advice, workshops, and research opportunities to help them accomplish their advance degrees as well as diversify health related research. Build students choose a mentor in their desired field and research in their mentor’s lab. Dr. Emel Demircan is a mentor to many students allowing them to gain knowledge and experience in the biomechanics and robotics field.

Frederick and his team are working on the project to design a lower body support device to assist in walking. He have been tasked with using SolidWorks to design a device that fits between the user’s legs and allows for a full range of motion. The design relies on having three axes of rotation in the hip region. This is difficult to design due to the small amount of horizontal space between the legs. He also assists in exploring the different methods of importing the design into OpenSim so that actuators can be placed at the joints to provide a driving force from the device.

Maya is working on phase two of the simulation based assistive device design on OpenSim. Phase one was to create lower body exoskeleton on SolidWorks that is scaled to the gait_2392 musculoskeletal model on OpenSim. Phase two, is to import and actuate the assistive device so it can propel the musculoskeletal model. To do this, actuators need to be added to the code with correct constraints and the muscles in the lower body need to be turned off to accurately simulate an assistive device walking for a person.

Cheston is working with John Abella and Diego Ugalde in the "Real-Time Motion JACO project." The project entails a 3D sensors to analyze and give feedback ofan object or person while the JACO arm moves in real time with the moving object or person. The project is in the initial phases, so research is being done on the equipment necessary for this project. Currently, he is researching different types of 3D sensors that could accurately analyze the motions of the objects or people within the environment and be able to extract that data in real time.