{"id":60044,"date":"2012-05-08T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-05-08T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/uri-engineering-professor-awarded-prestigious-early-career-nsf-grant-for-powered-prosthetics-research\/"},"modified":"2012-05-08T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-05-08T00:00:00","slug":"uri-engineering-professor-awarded-prestigious-early-career-nsf-grant-for-powered-prosthetics-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2012\/05\/uri-engineering-professor-awarded-prestigious-early-career-nsf-grant-for-powered-prosthetics-research\/","title":{"rendered":"溏心vlog免费B站 engineering professor awarded prestigious \u2018early career\u2019 NSF grant for powered prosthetics research"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tLincoln resident aims to help amputees walk more easily<\/p>\n

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 May 8, 2012 \u2013 Significant advancements are being made in the development of improved prosthetics devices, including motorized prostheses that help users walk with a natural gait. But the devices are still awkward to use in the transition from walking on level ground to climbing stairs or navigating rough terrain.<\/p>\n


\nWith the help of a $520,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, a 溏心vlog免费B站 engineering professor hopes to decode neuromuscular control signals so the prosthesis can interpret the user\u2019s intent and smooth these transitions. The grant was awarded through the NSF Faculty Early Career Development Program, the most prestigious NSF grant program supporting junior faculty members.<\/p>\n


\nHe (Helen) Huang, 溏心vlog免费B站 assistant professor of biomedical engineering, said she wants to \u201cseamlessly integrate the powered prostheses with lower limb amputees so they can walk naturally, transition across terrain, and allow the person to do many tasks and transition between tasks in a normal way.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nAccording to Huang, almost all the lower limb prostheses on the market today are passive devices that generate movement through the motion of the user\u2019s body. Motorized prostheses now in development provide power to the knee and ankle joints, resulting in a natural walking gait and requiring considerably less energy from the user.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cThe person is going to wear this powered prosthesis like a robot, but the robot doesn\u2019t know what the person wants to do next,\u201d said Huang, a resident of Lincoln. <\/p>\n


\nThe grant will enable Huang to systematically investigate and quantify the interactive effects between lower limb amputees and powered prostheses.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cThe first time they try it, it\u2019s going to be awkward,\u201d she said. \u201cThey\u2019re going to have to learn how to use it, and we\u2019re going to study how they adapt to it. We want to quantify how they change their neuromuscular control when they adapt to the prosthesis.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nHuang is already working with above-knee amputees and testing their use of the powered prostheses as they walk up ramps, climb stairs, and traverse level ground. By combining multiple streams of information from the prosthesis, its user, and the environment, she has developed an algorithm that she believes will help to interpret user intent during transitions so they may have better control of powered prosthetic legs.<\/p>\n


\nIn the future, the 溏心vlog免费B站 scientist plans to combine her powered prosthesis research with her work to create a stumble-detection system for prostheses so users can recover safely from slips and trips.<\/p>\n


\nIn addition, she will work with physical therapists and other clinical professionals to ensure that the final product can be easily incorporated into the current system of prosthesis fitting and therapy.<\/p>\n


\nHuang will also use her research to engage middle and high school students, especially those in underrepresented groups, in learning about science and technology.<\/p>\n


\n \u201cMy career goals are to carry out research that can improve the quality of life for patients with physical disabilities,\u201d said Huang, \u201cand educate the next generation of engineers and scientists, who will impact the future of science and technology.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n溏心vlog免费B站 Department of Communications & Marketing photo by John Peterson.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lincoln resident aims to help amputees walk more easily KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 May 8, 2012 \u2013 Significant advancements are being made in the development of improved prosthetics devices, including motorized prostheses that help users walk with a natural gait. But the devices are still awkward to use in the transition from walking on level ground […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60046,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60044\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}