Project Goal
The Musculoskeletal Biomechanics research lab at 苹果淫院 has a model of a human spine and wants to be able to perform experiments on it to better understand how the spine supports itself under loading. Our team's job was to add the presence of the abdomen, which plays an important role in spinal stabilization through increase intraabdominal pressure (IAP).
The final design consists of muscle bands representing the three main abdominal muscle groups: transverse, obliques, and rectus abdominis. These muscle bands contract and relax in a similar manner to real muscles because of nitinol springs that are attached to the ends of the bands. Nitinol is a shape memory alloy, so when current is passed through it, the spring heats up and contracts, pulling the muscle bands tight.
The current through the nitinol springs is controlled using an Arduino microcontroller. The current in each muscle group is modulated between 1 and 0 to control the speed of contraction.
The final model can measure the IAP in the stomach cavity when the muscles are relaxed and when they are flexed. As expected, the IAP consistently increased as the muscles contracted.
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Team
Client and academic advisor: Prof. Mark Driscoll
Student team (from left to right):听Benjamin Barrett, Nicole Thoma, Claire Shewchuk, Langdon Kay
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Award
The project was awarded the third place Medtec Design award, which looked at all medical technology capstone design projects in the Faculty of Engineering at 苹果淫院 in 2022.