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Mehdi Delrobaei
K. N. Toosi University of Technology, Mechatronics, Faculty Member
- Mehdi Delrobaei received his Ph.D. degree from Western University, London, ON, Canada, in 2010, in electrical enginee... moreMehdi Delrobaei received his Ph.D. degree from Western University, London, ON, Canada, in 2010, in electrical engineering. He completed his post-doctoral training at Western University and the Lawson Health Research Institute, London, ON, from 2011 to 2016. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Mechatronics and the Director of the Biomechatronics Laboratory, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, K. N. Toosi University of Technology. His research interests include biomechatronic systems, wearable assistive technologies, and cognitive rehabilitation.edit
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Older adults’ independent life is compromised due to various problems, such as memory impairments and decision-making difficulties. This work initially proposes an integrated conceptual model for assisted living systems capable of... more
Older adults’ independent life is compromised due to various problems, such as memory impairments and decision-making difficulties. This work initially proposes an integrated conceptual model for assisted living systems capable of providing helping means for older adults with mild memory impairments and their caregivers. The proposed model has four main components: (1) an indoor location and heading measurement unit in the local fog layer, (2) an augmented reality (AR) application to make interactions with the user, (3) an IoT-based fuzzy decision-making system to handle the direct and environmental interactions with the user, and (4) a user interface for caregivers to monitor the situation in real time and send reminders once required. Then, a preliminary proof-of-concept implementation is performed to evaluate the suggested mode’s feasibility. Functional experiments are carried out based on various factual scenarios, which validate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. The a...
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Background: Deep brain stimulation of the sub-thalamic nucleus (DBS-STN) is a common neurological treatment for individuals with Parkinson’s Disease (PD). DBS-STN is hypothesized to increase motor-related cortical activity by disrupting... more
Background: Deep brain stimulation of the sub-thalamic nucleus (DBS-STN) is a common neurological treatment for individuals with Parkinson’s Disease (PD). DBS-STN is hypothesized to increase motor-related cortical activity by disrupting the disease-related inhibition of the cortical-basal ganglia-thalamus motor system. While DBS-STN has positive effects on most major motor symptoms in PD, its effect on speech intelligibility is inconsistent and may produce significant impairments in some individuals (Iulianeli, Adams, & Gow. 2008; Skodda, 2012). These variable effects on speech may be related to fundamental differences in the speech and limb motor systems that are associated with different levels of responsiveness to specific stimulation parameter settings. The present investigation will systematically examine a range of DBS-STN stimulation settings in order to study the relationship between DBS-STN settings and speech intelligibility. Objectives: This study will explore and evaluat...
Recent studies have focused on developing advanced assistive devices to help blind or visually impaired people. Navigation is challenging for this community; however, developing a simple yet reliable navigation system is still an unmet... more
Recent studies have focused on developing advanced assistive devices to help blind or visually impaired people. Navigation is challenging for this community; however, developing a simple yet reliable navigation system is still an unmet need. This study targets the navigation problem and proposes a wearable assistive system. We developed a smart glove and shoe set based on radio-frequency identification technology to assist visually impaired people with navigation and orientation in indoor environments. The system enables the user to find the directions through audio feedback. To evaluate the device's performance, we designed a simple experimental setup. The proposed system has a simple structure and can be personalized according to the user's requirements. The results identified that the platform is reliable, power efficient, and accurate enough for indoor navigation.
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Recent studies have focused on developing advanced assistive devices to help blind or visually impaired people. Navigation is challenging for this community; however, developing a simple yet reliable navigation system is still an unmet... more
Recent studies have focused on developing advanced assistive devices to help blind or visually impaired people. Navigation is challenging for this community; however, developing a simple yet reliable navigation system is still an unmet need. This study targets the navigation problem and proposes a wearable assistive system. We developed a smart glove and shoe set based on radio-frequency identification technology to assist visually impaired people with navigation and orientation in indoor environments. The system enables the user to find the directions through audio feedback. To evaluate the device's performance, we designed a simple experimental setup. The proposed system has a simple structure and can be personalized according to the user's requirements. The results identified that the platform is reliable, power efficient, and accurate enough for indoor navigation.
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Driver Drowsiness is one of the leading causes of road accidents. Electroencephalography (EEG) is highly affected by drowsiness; hence, EEG-based methods detect drowsiness with the highest accuracy. Developments in manufacturing dry... more
Driver Drowsiness is one of the leading causes of road accidents. Electroencephalography (EEG) is highly affected by drowsiness; hence, EEG-based methods detect drowsiness with the highest accuracy. Developments in manufacturing dry electrodes and headsets have made recording EEG more convenient. Vehicle-based features used for detecting drowsiness are easy to capture but do not have the best performance. In this paper, we investigated the performance of EEG signals recorded in 4 channels with commercial headsets against the vehicle-based technique in drowsiness detection. We recorded EEG signals of 50 volunteers driving a simulator in drowsy and alert states by commercial devices. The observer rating of the drowsiness method was used to determine the drowsiness level of the subjects. The meaningful separation of vehicle-based features, recorded by the simulator, and EEG-based features of the two states of drowsiness and alertness have been investigated. The comparison results indicated that the EEG-based features are separated with lower values than the vehicle-based ones in the two states. It is concluded that EEG headsets can be feasible alternatives with better performance compared to vehicle-based methods for detecting drowsiness
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A modular wheeled mobile robot is composed of autonomous wheeled modules capable of selfassembling to form up a modular mobile robot. The robot can change the number of its modules by having the modules detach themselves from the main... more
A modular wheeled mobile robot is composed of autonomous wheeled modules capable of selfassembling to form up a modular mobile robot. The robot can change the number of its modules by having the modules detach themselves from the main body and move independently. In this paper, we propose a docking system for such robots, including a connection mechanism and a docking guidance system. The connection mechanism includes reconnectable opponents which allow the modules to connect to and disconnect from one another. The infrared docking guidance system is used to steer the modules and keep them aligned until they are docked.
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Recent studies have focused on facilitating perception and outdoor navigation for people who live with blindness or some form of vision loss. However, a significant portion of these studies is centered around treatment and vision... more
Recent studies have focused on facilitating perception and outdoor navigation for people who live with blindness or some form of vision loss. However, a significant portion of these studies is centered around treatment and vision rehabilitation, leaving some immediate needs, such as interaction with the surrounding objects or recognizing colors and fine patterns without tactile feedback. This study targets such needs and delivers a straightforward communication method with the environment using a wearable, unobtrusive device. We initially discuss the advantages and limitations of related works to draw out the best-fitting design concepts. Then, we introduce the potential for emerging technologies such as radio frequency identification. We present the design details and the experimental results of an assistive glove to allow people with vision disabilities to interact with the environment more efficiently. Based on the collected data from 17 blindfolded healthy participants, the implemented system’s success rate in identifying objects was about 96.32%. Overall, 70% of the users found the device very satisfactory.
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Brain-computer interface (BCI) is defined as the combination of machine and brain signals to control a device or computer to improve the quality of life, e.g., for people with paralysis. In this paper, we focus on people with speech... more
Brain-computer interface (BCI) is defined as the combination of machine and brain signals to control a device or computer to improve the quality of life, e.g., for people with paralysis. In this paper, we focus on people with speech disorders and investigate the capability of electroencephalogram (EEG) signals to discriminate four classes, including the speech imagination of three Persian words corresponding to the English words "rock," "paper," and "scissors," in addition to the resting state. We used the data available from the 3rd Iranian BCI competition (iBCIC2020), acquired from 10 healthy participants in a randomized study. Initially, the mutual information (MI) was used to find the optimum frequency band. Then, features were extracted from the data using the Common Spatial Pattern (CSP) algorithm. Afterward, the most discriminative features were selected using the neighborhood component analysis (NCA). These features were then fed to a meta-classifier based on the stacking ensemble learning. The results show that working on an optimum frequency band will enhance the results compared with the fixed frequency band. It is also worth mentioning that the optimum frequency band is subject dependent; therefore, it is substantial to be selected accurately. Our method achieved an average classification accuracy of 51.90%±2.73 across all participants, which is promising compared with the results of previous studies in the field of imagined speech recognition in subject dependent BCI systems with randomized order of the stimuli.
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Profiles of the Z-scores of the applied forces (Thumb, Index, and Hand), the measured joint angles (wrist, elbow, and shoulder), and the cramp severities on all surfaces for each individual patient. (PDF 241Â kb)
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Today, digital applications and new mobile technologies can change the nature of psychiatrist's relationship with their patient and future clinical practices. The physiological data of each person is as important to the mental health... more
Today, digital applications and new mobile technologies can change the nature of psychiatrist's relationship with their patient and future clinical practices. The physiological data of each person is as important to the mental health as the behavioral information that is taken from smart phone. Using the results of physiological tests, you can prescribe medication to the patient. Patients with serious mental illness often do not follow prescribed medications. The science of taking or not taking the medication by the patient helps in speeding up his treatment. For this reason, sensors embedded in pills, known as digital medicines, can confirm drug usage by the patient. After taking digital medications, these eatable sensors generate signals that will activate in the stomach and sends signals to wearable sensors. Wearable sensors transmit data to a program on the patient's smartphone and eventually the data is transferred to the healthcare provider's portals. This technolo...
Today, credible institutions have made extensive research on the impact of smart phones on the treatment of psychological problems, which suggests that mental patients, even those who suffer from severe illnesses such as schizophrenia or... more
Today, credible institutions have made extensive research on the impact of smart phones on the treatment of psychological problems, which suggests that mental patients, even those who suffer from severe illnesses such as schizophrenia or depression, can use smart phones or computers to control their situation. When a patient refers to a psychiatrist, in their primary appointments, much time is spent on the initial recognition of the patient's symptoms, such as a sleep pattern, appetite and ability to concentrate. Since depression has a negative effect on the person's ability to think and remember, it is difficult for a psychiatrist to record accurately these symptoms. After that, the psychiatrist may prescribe medication or exercise for the patient, but the patient will ignore the sport activities. The psychiatrists can look at behavioral information from smartphones rather than relying on patient symptoms. Since depressed people often tend to stay at home, GPS data from the...
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The applications of intelligent systems have received a growing interest in the automobile industry. The car parking issue is one of the challenges for drivers, which can be solved by these smart systems. In this study, a new method for... more
The applications of intelligent systems have received a growing interest in the automobile industry. The car parking issue is one of the challenges for drivers, which can be solved by these smart systems. In this study, a new method for automatic parallel parking problems is proposed. The suggested method uses fuzzy inference to control, steer, and park the car in a tight space. Two parallel embedded fuzzy controllers have been designed to navigate the vehicle on the desired path. Unlike other studies that have used the error between developed and reference routes, the proposed method only uses the car’s position data, similar to an experienced driver. There is no need to use the sensors to track the desired path in this method, but the car’s kinematic model’s output is the controllers' input. Based on the obtained results, the generated path by controllers is close to the desired track.
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The aim of this research work is to develop a wearable and IoT-based fall detection system that can potentially be integrated within a smart home or a community health center to improve the quality of life of the elderly. This system... more
The aim of this research work is to develop a wearable and IoT-based fall detection system that can potentially be integrated within a smart home or a community health center to improve the quality of life of the elderly. This system would enable caregivers to remotely monitor the activities of their dependents and to immediately be notified of falls as adverse events. The proposed hardware architecture includes a processor, a triaxial accelerometer, a barometric pressure sensor, a Wi-Fi module, and battery packs. This unobtrusive architecture causes no interference with daily living while monitoring the falls. The output of the fall detection algorithm is a two-state flag, transmitted to a remote server in real-time.
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The independent life of the individuals suffering from Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is compromised due to their memory loss, and as a result they always depend on someone by their side to help them lead their daily life. In this situation,... more
The independent life of the individuals suffering from Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is compromised due to their memory loss, and as a result they always depend on someone by their side to help them lead their daily life. In this situation, generally, either the family members or the caregivers extend their helping hands; they attach notes on every single object or take out the contents of a drawer, the family might need to make those visible when they leave the patient alone at home. The goal of this study is to provide some helping means for the patient and the family members through existing science and technology. This study reports preliminary results on an Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) real-time system, achieved through Internet of Things (IoT) and Augmented Reality (AR) concepts, to fulfil this goal. The system has two main sections: the first one is the smartphone or windows application that allows caregivers/family-members to monitor a patient’s status at home and be notified if patient are at risk. The second part allows patient to use smart glasses to recognize QR codes in the environment and receive information related to the tags in the form of audio, text or three-dimensional image. This work presents preliminary results and investigates the possibility of implementing such a system.
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This study aims to investigate the discriminative gait features of forward and backward walking to provide a combination of the most relevant parameters. These parameters would potentially help the clinicians to follow quantitative... more
This study aims to investigate the discriminative gait features of forward and backward walking to provide a combination of the most relevant parameters. These parameters would potentially help the clinicians to follow quantitative methods in diagnosing Parkinson's disease. In this paper, the statistically significant gait features were narrowed down from 46 to 30, 20, 10, and 5, using the minimal-redundancy-maximal-relevance feature selection method. The selected features were then fed to Random Forest and Support Vector Machine classifiers to evaluate the ability of features in discriminating Parkinson's disease and control groups. According to the results, we selected to use Random Forest classifier in our algorithm. Applying our algorithm on a database comprising 62 Parkinson's disease patients and 11 control participants, we achieved the average accuracy of 93.9 and 88 in 10 iterations of Random Forest and Support Vector Machine, respectively. Using the minimal-redundancy-maximal-relevance feature selection and mean decrease in accuracy and Gini index of the Random Forest classifier, we found the critical role of backward walking parameters such as the average of stance time, step length, and swing time in classification results.
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A variety of clinical scales are available to assess dyskinesia severity in Parkinson's disease patients; however, such assessments are subjective, do not provide long term monitoring, and their use is subject to inter- and... more
A variety of clinical scales are available to assess dyskinesia severity in Parkinson's disease patients; however, such assessments are subjective, do not provide long term monitoring, and their use is subject to inter- and intra-rater variability. In this study, an objective dyskinesia score was developed using an IMU-based motion capture system. Deep brain stimulation (DBS) surgery is currently the only acute intervention that results in rapidly progressive reduction of dyskinesia's severity, hence this form of therapy was selected as a model to validate the proposed method. Thirteen Parkinson's disease participants undergoing DBS surgery and twelve age-matched healthy control participants were assessed using the motion capture system. Concurrent Unified Dyskinesia Rating Scale ratings were also performed. Parkinson's disease participants were assessed preoperatively and for five visits post-operatively while seated at rest, during arms outstretched and while perfo...
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Writer's cramp is a specific focal hand dystonia causing abnormal posturing and tremor in the upper limb. The most popular medical intervention, botulinum neurotoxin type A (BoNT-A) therapy, is variably effective for 50-70% of... more
Writer's cramp is a specific focal hand dystonia causing abnormal posturing and tremor in the upper limb. The most popular medical intervention, botulinum neurotoxin type A (BoNT-A) therapy, is variably effective for 50-70% of patients. BoNT-A non-responders undergo ineffective treatment and may experience significant side effects. Various assessments have been used to determine response prediction to BoNT-A, but not in the same population of patients. A comprehensive assessment was employed to measure various symptom aspects. Clinical scales, full upper-limb kinematic measures, self-report, and task performance measures were assessed for nine writer's cramp patients at baseline. Patients received two BoNT-A injections then were classified as responders or non-responders based on a quantified self-report measure. Baseline scores were compared between groups, across all measures, to determine which scores predicted a positive BoNT-A response. Five of nine patients were respon...
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Abnormality of sensorimotor integration in the basal ganglia and cortex has been reported in the literature for patients with task-specific focal hand dystonia (FHD). In this study, we investigate the effect of manipulation of kinesthetic... more
Abnormality of sensorimotor integration in the basal ganglia and cortex has been reported in the literature for patients with task-specific focal hand dystonia (FHD). In this study, we investigate the effect of manipulation of kinesthetic input in people living with writer's cramp disorder (a major form of FHD). For this purpose, severity of dystonia is studied for 11 participants while the symptoms of 7 participants have been tracked during 5 sessions of assessment and Botulinum toxin injection (BoNT-A) therapy (one of the current suggested therapies for dystonia). BoNT-A therapy is delivered in the first and the third session. The goal is to analyze the effect of haptic manipulation as a potential assistive technique during BoNT-A therapy. The trial includes writing, hovering, and spiral/ sinusoidal drawing subtasks. In each session, the subtasks are repeated twice when (a) a participant uses a normal pen, and (b) when the participant uses a robotics-assisted system (supportin...
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This paper discusses the design and steering control for an autonomous modular mobile robot. The module is designed with a center-articulated steering joint to minimize the number of actuators used in the chain. We propose a feedback... more
This paper discusses the design and steering control for an autonomous modular mobile robot. The module is designed with a center-articulated steering joint to minimize the number of actuators used in the chain. We propose a feedback control law which allows steering between configurations in the plane and show its application as a parking control to dock modules together. The control law is designed by Lyapunov techniques and relies on the equations of the robot in polar coordinates. A set of experiments have been carried out to show the performance of the proposed approach. The design is intended to endow individual wheeled modules with the capability to merge and make a single snake-like robot to take advantage of the benefits of modular robotics.
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ABSTRACT The paper addresses autonomous parking control of an active-joint center-articulated mobile robot. We first propose a kinematic model of the robot and then a proper law is derived to stabilize the configuration of the vehicle to... more
ABSTRACT The paper addresses autonomous parking control of an active-joint center-articulated mobile robot. We first propose a kinematic model of the robot and then a proper law is derived to stabilize the configuration of the vehicle to a small neighborhood of the goal. The control law is designed by Lyapunov techniques and relies on the equations of the robot in polar coordinates. A beacon-based guidance system also provides feedback from the position and orientation of the target. Simulation results show the robots ability to start from any arbitrary position and orientation, and achieve successful parking.
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Articulated steering vehicles (with active joint) are preferable for navigation in narrow environments due to their high maneuverability. In order to achieve closed-loop control of a center-articulated mobile robot, feedback from the... more
Articulated steering vehicles (with active joint) are preferable for navigation in narrow environments due to their high maneuverability. In order to achieve closed-loop control of a center-articulated mobile robot, feedback from the goal's position and orientation is needed. In practice, the measurement would be noisy. In this paper, we first investigate a kinematic model for center-articulated mobile robots, and propose a method to control a parking maneuver. Then, using a beacon-based positioning system, we show the effectiveness of this method in the presence of measurement noise.
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The assessment and treatment of writer's cramp is complicated due to the variations in the forces and angles of involved joints. Additionally, in some cases compensatory movements for cramp relief further complicates assessment.... more
The assessment and treatment of writer's cramp is complicated due to the variations in the forces and angles of involved joints. Additionally, in some cases compensatory movements for cramp relief further complicates assessment. Currently these variables are subjectively measured with clinical scales and visual assessments. This subjectivity makes it difficult to successfully administer interventions such as Botulinum toxin injection or orthotics resulting in poor efficacy and significant side effects. A multi-sensor system was used to record finger and wrist forces along with deviation angles at the wrist, elbow and shoulder while 9 patients with writer's cramp performed a series of standardized tasks on surfaces inclined at different angles. Clinical, kinetic, and kinematic information regarding cramping was collected. First, four tasks appeared to best predict cramp occurrence. Second, unique biomechanical profiles emerged for patients regarding force, angles and cramp se...
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Page 1. DOCKING JOINT FOR AUTONOMOUS SELF-ASSEMBLY Mehdi Delrobaei, Kenneth A. McIsaac ... 1.(a)) and a female opponent (Fig. 1.(b)). The conical head of the male part provides a smooth docking, and the slot allows a key to lock the... more
Page 1. DOCKING JOINT FOR AUTONOMOUS SELF-ASSEMBLY Mehdi Delrobaei, Kenneth A. McIsaac ... 1.(a)) and a female opponent (Fig. 1.(b)). The conical head of the male part provides a smooth docking, and the slot allows a key to lock the joint. Fig. ...
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ABSTRACT Clinical scale-based follow-up of patients undergoing bilateral subthalamic deep brain stimulation (STN-DBS) surgery has shown inconsistent effects on bradykinesia in Parkinson's disease patients. Furthermore,... more
ABSTRACT Clinical scale-based follow-up of patients undergoing bilateral subthalamic deep brain stimulation (STN-DBS) surgery has shown inconsistent effects on bradykinesia in Parkinson's disease patients. Furthermore, quantitative assessment of STN-DBS effect on bradykinesia has not been fully explored yet. Our group uses multisensory kinematic technologies to study short-term and long-term DBS effects on Parkinson's disease. In this paper we present a kinematic analysis of the short term (3 month) effects of STN-DBS on bradykinesia in five PD patients and compare the results with data obtained from healthy age-matched controls.
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ABSTRACT In this paper, a novel tool is suggested which allows to simultaneously record arm joint angles and the applied forces of patients with writer's cramp during the performance of multiple writing and drawing tasks. The... more
ABSTRACT In this paper, a novel tool is suggested which allows to simultaneously record arm joint angles and the applied forces of patients with writer's cramp during the performance of multiple writing and drawing tasks. The presented tool identifies the role of the upper limb joints and exerted forces once a cramping event happens. Over the past decade different kinematic analyses have been introduced in patients with writer's cramp, but it is still unknown how the kinematic measures change during cramping events. Our goal is to investigate if such kinematic assessment can show consistent abnormalities among patients. The preliminary results show the feasibility of using such kinematic tool to fully assess the performance of the patients with writer's cramp.
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ABSTRACT Freezing of gait is a debilitating symptom that affects mobility in Parkinson disease (PD) patients. In this study, we examined mean center of pressure (CoP) for patients during freezing and compared them against mean CoP during... more
ABSTRACT Freezing of gait is a debilitating symptom that affects mobility in Parkinson disease (PD) patients. In this study, we examined mean center of pressure (CoP) for patients during freezing and compared them against mean CoP during standing and walking. Patients experienced a significantly forward CoP (p
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ABSTRACT In this study, kinematic characteristics of writing are compared in 5 patients with writer's cramp who performed a set of standardized writing tasks. The kinematic characteristics include upper limb joint angles, vertical... more
ABSTRACT In this study, kinematic characteristics of writing are compared in 5 patients with writer's cramp who performed a set of standardized writing tasks. The kinematic characteristics include upper limb joint angles, vertical hand pressure, and finger grip force. The effect of writing on different inclined supporting surfaces is also investigated. Our results indicate that altering upper limb posture using inclined surfaces improves aspects of writing discomfort in writer's cramp subjects. Although the change in arm joint angles and fingers/hand pressure is not generalizable between patients, such kinematic evaluations seem to be a key factor in the outcome of any personalized treatment or rehabilitation strategy.
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ABSTRACT Writer's cramp, a task specific dystonia is felt to be a disorder of sensorimotor integration involving the basal ganglia and cortex. Motivated by this fact, in the present study we investigated the effects of haptic and... more
ABSTRACT Writer's cramp, a task specific dystonia is felt to be a disorder of sensorimotor integration involving the basal ganglia and cortex. Motivated by this fact, in the present study we investigated the effects of haptic and visual sensory inputs on cramp severity and frequency during a trial. For this goal seven subjects with writer's cramp disease were asked to perform the trial, which included writing, hovering, and spiral/sinusoidal drawing subtasks. The trial had three major steps namely: A) normal writing, when the patients write without sensory manipulation, B) robotics-assisted writing, when a haptic device supports the pen and provides a compliant writing surface with the goal of manipulating the kinesthetic haptic input, and C) blindfolded writing, when the patients were asked to write while being blindfolded, with the goal of analyzing the potential effects of vision feedback in sensorimotor integration pathway. The number of cramps that occurred and subjective measures of patient feedback about cramp severity were analyzed. The results show that reducing the writing surface rigidity, and blocking vision feedback while writing, changes the cramp pattern and decreases the overall cramp severity.
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... 1413 Short Papers Connection Mechanism for Autonomous Self-Assembly in Mobile RobotsMehdi Delrobaei, Student Member, IEEE, and Kenneth A. McIsaac, Member, IEEE ... (b) Female connector, whose slot enables a key to lock the joint. (c)... more
... 1413 Short Papers Connection Mechanism for Autonomous Self-Assembly in Mobile RobotsMehdi Delrobaei, Student Member, IEEE, and Kenneth A. McIsaac, Member, IEEE ... (b) Female connector, whose slot enables a key to lock the joint. (c) Merging of the connectors. ...
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Purpose: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is now recognized as the most common childhood behavioral disorder. This disorder causes school problems and social incompatibility. Thus an accurate diagnosis can help diminish... more
Purpose: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is now recognized as the most common childhood behavioral disorder. This disorder causes school problems and social incompatibility. Thus an accurate diagnosis can help diminish such problems. In this paper, we propose a brain connectomics approach based on eyes-open resting state Magnetoencephalography (rs-MEG) to diagnose subjects with ADHD from Healthy Controls (HC). Materials and Methods: We used the eyes-open rs-MEG signals recorded from 25 subjects with ADHD and 25 HC. We calculated Coherence (COH) between the MEG sensors in the conventional frequency bands (i.e., delta, theta, alpha, beta, and gamma), selected the most discriminative COH measures by the Neighborhood Component Analysis (NCA), and fed them to three classifiers, including Support Vector Machine (SVM) with Radial Basis Function (RBF) kernel, K-Nearest Neighbors (KNN), and Decision Tree to classify ADHD and HC. Results: We achieved the best average accuracy ...
Background: The assessment and treatment of writer’s cramp is complicated due to the variations in the forces and angles of involved joints. Additionally, in some cases compensatory movements for cramp relief further complicates... more
Background: The assessment and treatment of writer’s cramp is complicated due to the variations in the forces and angles of involved joints. Additionally, in some cases compensatory movements for cramp relief further complicates assessment. Currently these variables are subjectively measured with clinical scales and visual assessments. This subjectivity makes it difficult to successfully administer interventions such as Botulinum toxin injection or orthotics resulting in poor efficacy and significant side effects.
Method: A multi-sensor system was used to record finger and wrist forces along with deviation angles at the wrist, elbow and shoulder while 9 patients with writer's cramp performed a series of standardized tasks on surfaces inclined at different angles. Clinical, kinetic, and kinematic information regarding cramping was collected.
Results: First, four tasks appeared to best predict cramp occurrence. Second, unique biomechanical profiles emerged for patients regarding force, angles and cramp severity. Third, cluster analyses using these features showed a clear separation of patients into two severity classes. Finally, a relationship between severity and kinetic-kinematic information suggested that primary cramping versus compensatory movements could be potentially inferred.
Conclusions: The results demonstrate that using a set of standardized tasks and objective measures, individual profiles for arm movements and applied forces associated with writer’s cramp can be generated. The clinician can then accurately target the biomechanics specifically, whether it is with injection or other rehabilitative measures, fulfilling an important unmet need in the treatment of writer’s cramp.
Method: A multi-sensor system was used to record finger and wrist forces along with deviation angles at the wrist, elbow and shoulder while 9 patients with writer's cramp performed a series of standardized tasks on surfaces inclined at different angles. Clinical, kinetic, and kinematic information regarding cramping was collected.
Results: First, four tasks appeared to best predict cramp occurrence. Second, unique biomechanical profiles emerged for patients regarding force, angles and cramp severity. Third, cluster analyses using these features showed a clear separation of patients into two severity classes. Finally, a relationship between severity and kinetic-kinematic information suggested that primary cramping versus compensatory movements could be potentially inferred.
Conclusions: The results demonstrate that using a set of standardized tasks and objective measures, individual profiles for arm movements and applied forces associated with writer’s cramp can be generated. The clinician can then accurately target the biomechanics specifically, whether it is with injection or other rehabilitative measures, fulfilling an important unmet need in the treatment of writer’s cramp.