While a conventional prosthetic hand helps restore mobility, the electronic glove, e-glove, developed by Purdue University researchers advances prosthetic technology by offering realistic human hand-like features in daily activities and life roles. It can be worn over a prosthetic hand to provide humanlike softness, warmth, appearance, and sensory perception, such as the ability to sense pressure, temperature and hydration.
The e-glove uses thin, flexible electronic sensors and miniaturized silicon-based circuit chips on the commercially available nitrile glove. The e-glove is connected to a specially designed wristwatch, allowing for real-time display of sensory data and remote transmission to the user for post-data processing.
Chi Hwan Lee, an assistant professor in Purdue's College of Engineering, in collaboration with other researchers at Purdue, the University of Georgia and the University of Texas, worked on the development of the e-glove technology.
"We developed a novel concept of the soft-packaged, sensor-instrumented e-glove built on a commercial nitrile glove, allowing it to seamlessly fit on arbitrary hand shapes," Lee says. "The e-glove is configured with a stretchable form of multimodal sensors to collect various information such as pressure, temperature, humidity, and electrophysiological biosignals, while simultaneously providing realistic human hand-like softness, appearance and even warmth."
The fabrication process of the e-glove is cost-effective and manufacturable in high volume, making it an affordable option for users unlike other emerging technologies with mind, voice, and muscle control embedded within the prosthetic at a high cost.
"My group is devoted to developing various wearable biomedical devices, and my ultimate goal is to bring these technologies out of the lab and help many people in need. This research represents my continued efforts in this context," Lee concludes.
Depiction of a soft robotic device known as a dynamic soft reservoir (DSR)
Image courtesy of the researchers
Soft robotics manage immune response of implanted medical devices
This development could enable longer-lasting and better-functioning medical devices – pacemakers, breast implants, biosensors, and drug delivery devices.
The implantable medical devices market is currently estimated at $100 billion, with significant growth potential into the future as new technologies for drug delivery and health monitoring are developed. These devices are not without problems, caused in part by the body’s own protection responses. These complex and unpredictable foreign-body responses impair device function and drastically limit the long-term performance and therapeutic efficacy of these devices.
One such foreign body response is fibrosis, a process whereby a dense fibrous capsule surrounds the implanted device, which can cause device failure or impede its function. Implantable medical devices have various failure rates that can be attributed to fibrosis, ranging from 30% to 50% for implantable pacemakers or 30% for mammoplasty prosthetics. In the case of biosensors or drug/cell delivery devices, the dense fibrous capsule which can build up around the implanted device can seriously impede its function, with consequences for the patient and costs to the health care system.
The transatlantic partnership of scientists has created a tiny, mechanically actuated soft robotic device known as a dynamic soft reservoir (DSR) that has been shown to significantly reduce the build-up of the fibrous capsule by manipulating the environment at the interface between the device and the body. The device uses mechanical oscillation to modulate how cells respond around the implant. In a bio-inspired design, the DSR can change its shape at a microscope scale through an actuating membrane.
IMES core faculty member, assistant professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, and W.M. Keck Career Development Professor in Biomedical Engineering Ellen Roche, the senior co-author of the study, is a former researcher at NUI Galway who won international acclaim in 2017 for her work in creating a soft robotic sleeve to help patients with heart failure.
Of this research, Roche says “This study demonstrates how mechanical perturbations of an implant can modulate the host foreign body response. This has vast potential for a range of clinical applications and will hopefully lead to many future collaborative studies between our teams.”
Garry Duffy, professor in anatomy at NUI Galway and AMBER principal investigator, and a senior co-author of the study, adds “We feel the ideas described in this paper could transform future medical devices and how they interact with the body. We are very excited to develop this technology further and to partner with people interested in the potential of soft robotics to better integrate devices for longer use and superior patient outcomes. It’s fantastic to build and continue the collaboration with the Dolan and Roche labs, and to develop a trans-Atlantic network of soft roboticists.”
The first author of the study, Eimear Dolan, lecturer of biomedical engineering at NUI Galway and former researcher in the Roche and Duffy labs at MIT and NUI Galway, says “We are very excited to publish this study, as it describes an innovative approach to modulate the foreign-body response using soft robotics. I recently received a Science Foundation Ireland Royal Society University Research Fellowship to bring this technology forward with a focus on Type 1 diabetes. It is a privilege to work with such a talented multi-disciplinary team, and I look forward to continuing working together.”
A new vision for medical devices to address this problem was published in the journal, Science Robotics, where researcher describe the use of soft robotics to modify the body’s response to implanted devices.
Early design of the diagnostic stick to be further developed and ready for market by 2021.
As Baby Boomers age and new medical devices are designed, manufactured, and brought to market, demand for contract manufacturing services continues to grow. A recent report indicated that the global medical devices contract manufacturing market was valued at $47.5 billion in 2017 and will increase 12.5% through 2026.
The report goes on to state that, “According to the World Health Organization (WHO), cardiovascular diseases accounted for an estimated 17.7 million deaths in 2015, representing 31% of all global deaths. Among these, an estimated 7.4 million were due to coronary heart disease and 6.7 million were due to stroke.”
This brings me to the first medical advancement covered this weekend…a stick assessing your heart. Read on…
A stick to predict your risk of heart problems
A hand-held device with nano-sensors on the tip of the diagnostic stick measure heart disease biomarkers from saliva to accurately predict the risk of heart disease, failure or heart attack, then warn users via a simple app.
A deal led by Melbourne-based start-up, ESN Cleer, has just been signed to bring the technology to market.
ESN Cleer CEO, Leopoldt de Bruin, said the collaboration represented some of the best minds in medical device innovation, design, and manufacture.
"We're really pleased to be able to bring these strands together in addressing such a major global health challenge," De Bruin said.
The sensing technology, developed at RMIT's MicroNano Research Facility, was validated in the lab to measure biomarker concentrations a thousand times more precisely than levels in human body fluids.
"This marks a big step forward in technology for screening," says Research Co-Director of RMIT's Functional Materials and Microsystems Research Group, Professor Sharath Sriram. "Often, blood tests are only conducted after a heart failure episode. Such reactive testing is too late, leaving people with debilitating illness or leading to deaths. Prevention is always better than cure, which is where this technology comes in, adding accurate prediction to the mix."
The IMCRC funding, which matches contributions from ESN Cleer, is enabling a $3.5 million project investment into addressing the challenge of manufacturing and large-scale production of these diagnostic swabs.
UMC Precision Manufacturing expanding
UMC Precision Manufacturing entered into a Letter of Intent with the City of Monticello Economic Development Authority (EDA) regarding the potential expansion of its facility at 500 Chelsea Road East, Monticello, Minnesota.
“Our current and future demand from key customers in the medical and aerospace industries are pushing the need to develop a new production facility to relieve capacity pressure at our existing site,” says Jaci Dukowitz, COO at UMC Precision Manufacturing. “The expansion will allow the incorporation of new processes, products, and customers. It’s an integral part of our next phase of growth and we’re excited to be embarking on this initiative.”
The expansion is expected to generate 60 new jobs within the first 3 years of the expansion and generate a new tax base through the construction of a new 40,000ft2. The facility could eventually grow to approximately 85,000ft2 with future employment at the site reaching 100 to 125 jobs.
Stryker to acquire Mobius Imaging & Cardan Robotics
Stryker signed a definitive agreement to acquire Mobius Imaging LLC, developers of point-of-care imaging technology, and its sister company, GYS Tech LLC (DBA Cardan Robotics), in an all cash transaction of approximately $370 million upfront and up to $130 million of contingent payments associated with development and commercial milestones. The acquisition provides Stryker’s Spine division with immediate entry into the intra-operative imaging segment and aligns with Stryker’s implant and navigation offerings.
Mobius Imaging, founded in 2008, is focused on integrating advanced imaging technologies into medical workflow, which can enhance a clinician’s ability to obtain high-quality images. Its Airo TruCT scanner is a best-in-class mobile, real-time, diagnostic-quality CT imaging system. Cardan Robotics, founded in 2015, is working to develop innovative robotics and navigation technology systems for surgical and interventional radiology procedures.
$100 GOM CT Challenge from Exact Metrology Exact Metrology is standing behind the GOM CT scanner as being the most accurate industrial CT on the market, putting $100 challenge on the table
Laser welded ceramic assembly consisting of a transparent cylindrical cap joined to a ceramic tube.
Garay lab/UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering
Lasers enable engineers to weld ceramics
Researchers use an ultrafast pulsed laser to melt ceramic materials along the interface and fuse them together.
Metal-free pacemakers. Smartphones that don't scratch or shatter. Electronics for space and other harsh environments. These could all be made possible thanks to a new ceramic welding technology developed by a team of engineers at the University of California San Diego and the University of California Riverside.
The process, published in the Aug. 23 issue of Science, uses an ultrafast pulsed laser to melt ceramic materials along the interface and fuse them together. It works in ambient conditions and uses less than 50W of laser power, making it more practical than current ceramic welding methods that require heating the parts in a furnace.
Ceramics have been fundamentally challenging to weld together because they need extremely high temperatures to melt, exposing them to extreme temperature gradients that cause cracking, explained senior author Javier E. Garay, a professor of mechanical engineering and materials science and engineering at UC San Diego, who led the work in collaboration with UC Riverside professor and chair of mechanical engineering Guillermo Aguilar.
Ceramic materials are of great interest because they are biocompatible, extremely hard and shatter resistant, making them ideal for biomedical implants and protective casings for electronics. However, current ceramic welding procedures are not conducive to making such devices.
"Right now there is no way to encase or seal electronic components inside ceramics because you would have to put the entire assembly in a furnace, which would end up burning the electronics," Garay says.
Garay, Aguilar, and colleagues' solution was to aim a series of short laser pulses along the interface between two ceramic parts so that heat builds up only at the interface and causes localized melting. They call their method ultrafast pulsed laser welding.
To make it work, the researchers had to optimize two aspects: the laser parameters (exposure time, number of laser pulses, and duration of pulses) and the transparency of the ceramic material. With the right combination, the laser energy couples strongly to the ceramic, allowing welds to be made using low laser power (less than 50W) at room temperature.
Optical transmission through a transparent ceramic (left) vs. a traditional opaque ceramic (right).
"The sweet spot of ultrafast pulses was two picoseconds at the high repetition rate of one megahertz, along with a moderate total number of pulses. This maximized the melt diameter, minimized material ablation, and timed cooling just right for the best weld possible," Aguilar says.
"By focusing the energy right where we want it, we avoid setting up temperature gradients throughout the ceramic, so we can encase temperature-sensitive materials without damaging them," Garay says.
As a proof of concept, the researchers welded a transparent cylindrical cap to the inside of a ceramic tube. Tests showed that the welds are strong enough to hold vacuum.
"The vacuum tests we used on our welds are the same tests that are used in industry to validate seals on electronic and optoelectronic devices," says first author Elias Penilla, who worked on the project as a postdoctoral researcher in Garay's research group at UC San Diego.
The process has so far only been used to weld small ceramic parts that are less than two centimeters in size. Future plans will involve optimizing the method for larger scales, as well as for different types of materials and geometries.
Paper title: "Ultrafast Laser Welding of Ceramics." Co-authors include A. T. Wieg, P. Sellappan and Y. Kodera, UC San Diego; and L. F. Devia-Cruz, P. Martinez and N. Cuando-Espitia, UC Riverside.
This work was funded by Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA contract HR0011-16-2-0018), the National Science Foundation (NSF-PIRE grant 1545852) and UC Riverside Office of Research and Economic Development.
Intelligent industrial robots under tuning in a laboratory at the School of Engineering, Far Eastern Federal University.
FEFU press office
Software for diagnostics, fail-safe operation or robots
Researchers develop a software module to automatically diagnose defects in sensors, electric drives in a range of robots.
Using the software module, a robot can identify constant and variable errors in the signals of its sensors and malfunctions of electromechanical drives and corrects the control signals accordingly. The module eliminates all possible external noise and prevents distortions in sensor signals thus preserving the required levels of operating quality. The new development was presented at the international conference ICCAD'19 in Grenoble, France in July.
“Even an efficient system might experience issues such as external noise that distorts software signals, malfunctioning sensors, overheated engines, or increased friction due to foreign inclusions. We’ve developed a range of mathematical controllers, identifiers, and filters that are united under one software module. Using it, a robot can preserve the required accuracy of its work. It can identify the defects and their volumes and, acting just like humans, form signals to compensate for the negative consequences of these defects. At the same time, our module doesn't make the whole control system too complex,” says Professor Vladimir Filaretov, PhD in Technical Sciences, the Head of the Department of Automation and Control at the School of Engineering, Far Eastern Federal University.
Alexander Zuev, assistant professor of the Department of Automation and Control, adds that the methods for the identification and further correction of defects in control signals of mechatronic systems were being intensively developed in the whole world. However, until now the scientists failed to take the dynamics of robots into consideration because it requires complex mathematical transformations. This reduces the quality of diagnostics. Moreover, previously the scientists were able to correct the control signals only in simple machines and only if defects occurred in just one sensor.
“Our mathematical apparatus implemented in the software allows a robot to accurately identify the defects and compensate for their consequences in the presence of numerous external interferences when several sensors malfunction at the same time and the parameters of an electric drive change. The software is universal and can be applied to all types of robots,” Zuev explains.
At the ICCAD'19 conference the team from FEFU also presented a new control principle for smart industrial robots. It lies in the management of software signals on several levels - the executive and the strategic ones. It also takes into account inevitable errors made in the course of manufacture of mechanical robotic parts and provides for the correction of the management program in order to allow the machines to fulfil extra-accurate tasks and preserve high efficiency levels.
The new module is a part of a universal program for smart control of software signals in robots.
Posted by Elizabeth Engler Modic
