Robotic step training, noninvasive spinal stimulation enable patient to take thousands of steps

 

Mark Pollock and trainer Simon O’Donnell. Credit: Courtesy of Mark Pollock A 39-year-old man who had had been completely paralyzed for four years was able to voluntarily control his leg muscles and take thousands of steps in a "robotic exoskeleton" device during five days of training -- and for two weeks afterward -- a team of UCLA scientists reports this week. This is the first time that a person with chronic, complete paralysis has regained enough voluntary control to actively work with a robotic device designed to enhance mobility. In addition to the robotic device, the man was aided by a novel noninvasive spinal stimulation technique that does not require surgery. His leg movements also resulted in other health benefits, including improved cardiovascular function and muscle tone. The new approach combines a battery-powered wearable bionic suit that enables people to move their legs in a step-like fashion, with a noninvasive procedure that the same researchers had previously used to enable five men who had been completely paralyzed to move their legs in a rhythmic motion. That earlier achievement is believed to be the first time people who are completely paralyzed have been able to relearn voluntary leg movements without surgery. (The researchers do not describe the achievement as "walking" because no one who is completely paralyzed has independently walked in the absence of the robotic device and electrical stimulation of the spinal cord.) In the latest study, the researchers treated Mark Pollock, who lost his sight in 1998 and later became the first blind man to race to the South Pole. In 2010, Pollock fell from a second-story window and suffered a spinal cord injury that left him paralyzed from the waist down. At UCLA, Pollock made substantial progress after receiving a few weeks of physical training without spinal stimulation and then just five days of spinal stimulation training in a one-week span, for about an hour a day. "In the last few weeks of the trial, my heart rate hit 138 beats per minute," Pollock said. "This is an aerobic training zone, a rate I haven't even come close to since being paralyzed while walking in the robot alone, without these interventions. That was a very exciting, emotional moment for me, having spent my whole adult life before breaking my back as an athlete." Even in the years since he lost his sight, Pollock has competed in ultra-endurance races across deserts, mountains and the polar ice caps. He also won silver and bronze medals in rowing at the Commonwealth Games and launched a motivational speaking business. "Stepping with the stimulation and having my heart rate increase, along with the awareness of my legs under me, was addictive. I wanted more," he said. The research will be published by the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, the world's largest society of biomedical engineers. "It will be difficult to get people with complete paralysis to walk completely independently, but even if they don't accomplish that, the fact they can assist themselves in walking will greatly improve their overall health and quality of life," said V. Reggie Edgerton, senior author of the research and a UCLA distinguished professor of integrative biology and physiology, neurobiology and neurosurgery. The procedure used a robotic device manufactured by Richmond, California-based Ekso Bionics which captures data that enables the research team to determine how much the subject is moving his own limbs, as opposed to being aided by the device. "If the robot does all the work, the subject becomes passive and the nervous system shuts down," Edgerton said. The data showed that Pollock was actively flexing his left knee and raising his left leg and that during and after the electrical stimulation, he was able to voluntarily assist the robot during stepping; it wasn't just the robotic device doing the work. "For people who are severely injured but not completely paralyzed, there's every reason to believe that they will have the opportunity to use these types of interventions to further improve their level of function. They're likely to improve even more," Edgerton said. "We need to expand the clinical toolbox available for people with spinal cord injury and other diseases." Edgerton and his research team have received many awards and honors for their research, including Popular Mechanics' 2011 Breakthrough Award. "Dr. Edgerton is a pioneer and we are encouraged by these findings to broaden our understanding of possible treatment options for paralysis," said Peter Wilderotter, president and CEO of the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, which helped fund the research. "Given the complexities of a spinal cord injury, there will be no one-size-fits-all cure but rather a combination of different interventions to achieve functional recovery. "What we are seeing right now in the field of spinal cord research is a surge of momentum with new directions and approaches to remind the spine of its potential even years after an injury," he said. Grace Peng, director of NIBIB's Rehabilitation Engineering Program, said, "This is a great example of a therapeutic approach that combines two very different modalities -- neuromodulation and robotic assist devices -- to achieve a result that could not be realized with either approach alone. This multi-device approach, much like multi-drug therapy, may ultimately benefit patients with impaired mobility in a wide variety of rehabilitation settings." NeuroRecovery Technologies, a medical technology company Edgerton founded, designs and develops devices that help restore movement in patients with paralysis. The company provided the device used to stimulate the spinal cord in combination with the Ekso in this research. Edgerton said although it likely will be years before the new approaches are widely available, he now believes it is possible to significantly improve quality of life for patients with severe spinal cord injuries, and to help them recover multiple body functions. Although his laboratory is making dramatic progress, it only is able to work with a small number of patients due to limited resources. "We could accomplish a lot more in advancing the science and technology with more resources," Edgerton said. More information can be found at: http://emb.citengine.com/event/embc-2015/paper-details?pdID=4403 University of California - Los Angeles. "Completely paralyzed man voluntarily moves his legs, scientists report: Robotic step training, noninvasive spinal stimulation enable patient to take thousands of steps." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 1 September 2015. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/09/150901204831.htm>.

Autonomous vehicles share sidewalk space with pedestrians in six-day trial in Singaporean public garden

 

The autonomous golf carts (shown here) deployed in the Singapore public gardens relied on just a few unobtrusive sensors. Credit: Screenshot from video provided by SMART At the International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems in September, members of the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) and their colleagues will describe an experiment conducted over six days at a large public garden in Singapore, in which self-driving golf carts ferried 500 tourists around winding paths trafficked by pedestrians, bicyclists, and the occasional monitor lizard. The experiments also tested an online booking system that enabled visitors to schedule pickups and drop-offs at any of 10 distinct stations scattered around the garden, automatically routing and redeploying the vehicles to accommodate all the requests. "We would like to use robot cars to make transportation available to everyone," says Daniela Rus, the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Professor in MIT's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and a senior author on the conference paper. "The idea is, if you need a ride, you make a booking, maybe using your smartphone or maybe on the Internet, and the car just comes." The researchers asked participants in the experiment to fill out a brief questionnaire after their rides. Some 98 percent said that they would use the autonomous golf carts again, and 95 percent said that they would be more likely to visit the gardens if the golf carts were a permanent fixture. SMART is a collaboration between MIT and the National Research Foundation of Singapore. With lead researchers drawn from both MIT and several Singaporean universities -- chiefly the National University of Singapore and the Singapore University of Technology and Design -- the program offers four-year graduate fellowships that cover tuition for students at the affiliated schools, as well as undergraduate and postdoctoral research fellowships. Joining Rus on the paper are Emilio Frazzoli, a professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT; Marcel Ang, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at the National University of Singapore; and 16 SMART students, postdocs, and staff members, from both the U.S. and Asia. Less is more What distinguishes the SMART program's autonomous vehicles is that "we are taking a minimalist solution to the self-driving-car problem," Rus says. "The vehicles are instrumented, but they are not as heavily instrumented as the DARPA vehicles [competitors in the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's autonomous-vehicle challenge] were, nor as heavily instrumented as, say, the Google car. We believe that if you have a simple suite of strategically placed sensors and augment that with reliable algorithms, you will get robust results that require less computation and have less of a chance to get confused by 'fusing sensors,' or situations where one sensor says one thing and another sensor says something different." Accordingly, the golf carts' sensors consist entirely of off-the-shelf laser rangefinders mounted at different heights -- since unlike the more sophisticated rangefinders deployed in some other autonomous vehicles, they measure distance only in a plane -- and a camera. Algorithmically, one of the keys to the system is what the researchers call the "dynamic virtual bumper," which can be thought of as a cylinder surrounding the vehicle's planned trajectory. The width and length of the cylinder are a function of the vehicle's velocity. When an obstacle enters the cylinder, the vehicle's onboard computer redraws the cylinder to exclude it. That could mean changing the trajectory, reducing the velocity, or both. The short run In the experiments, the golf carts received no special treatment; they jockeyed for position on the garden's paths along with everyone else. But according to Rus, the obstacle-collision system encountered only one difficulty, when a large, slow-moving monitor lizard crossed the path of one of the golf carts. "It was this stop-and-go game over who's going to do what," Rus says. Of course, the golf carts had the advantage of moving relatively slowly -- a top speed of only about 15 mph -- which gave their algorithms more time to process sensor data and recalculate trajectories. But while the experiment was envisioned chiefly as a step on the path toward self-driving cars, Rus says that relatively slow autonomous golf carts could have their own practical applications. "If you think about who needs rides," she says, "it's fast enough for the elderly population who no longer have a driver's license and live in special areas where maybe their friend lives a mile away, and that's too far to walk. If they want to go to the doctor or shopping, they can use the self-driving golf carts because that's within some comfortable distance." Story Source: The above post is reprinted from materials provided by Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The original item was written by Larry Hardesty. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "Self-driving golf carts: Autonomous vehicles share sidewalk space with pedestrians in six-day trial in Singaporean public garden." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 1 September 2015. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/09/150901204835.htm>.

5 tips for a better night's sleep

 

Sleep is a critical part of managing stress and making healthy choices. Get a restful night's sleep with these tips. Sleep is a remarkably productive and critical part of life; it's the time when the brain and body recharge for another day. Yet, most of us simply aren’t getting enough sleep. Stress, everyday demands and — yes, your smartphone — are likely culprits negatively impacting your sleep. Either too little or too much sleep can make it tough to function at your best. Sleep better and wake up feeling more rested with this advice. Eat meals (especially dinner) at the same time each day and at least two to three hours before bedtime. Limit naps to 30 minutes at least six to eight hours before bedtime. Stay active. Any activity is good. For best results, get moving 20 to 30 minutes most days, at least four to six hours before bedtime. Limit your caffeine intake and avoid it after noon. Also avoid stimulants such as decongestants and nicotine. Go to bed at the same time every night and get up about the same time every morning — even on weekends. A healthy amount of sleep for most adults is seven to eight hours a night. If self-care techniques don't help, talk to your health care provider. Sleep problems are treatable. http://diet.mayoclinic.org/diet/motivate/tips-for-better-night-sleep?xid=nl_MayoClinicDiet_20150901

Intelligent Manufacturing

 

Tue, 09/01/2015 - 12:30pm Lindsay Hock, Editor The digital thread helps companies realize the full benefits of the Industrial Internet by helping them improve productivity and drive efficiency at a lower cost with higher quality. Image: GEThe marriage of modern Internet technologies such as Cloud and mobile computing, advanced analytics and ubiquitous connectivity with traditional plant systems, people, equipment and sensors is the Industrial Internet. And it’s leading to significant improvements in asset and operational performance, an uncharted territory to manufacturers. Many challenges relative to connectivity, security, deterministic control, isolation of plant networks, employee productivity and the long useful life of plant equipment, have led to the slow adoption of modern Internet technologies by manufacturers. “Until recently, manufacturers used the Internet primarily as an information source for research and planning outside the plant floor,” says Rich Carpenter, Chief Technology Strategist at GE Intelligent Platforms Software. This trend is changing as companies begin to realize the better decision-making potential (by people or automated machines) with the information aggregated and analyzed at a more ecosystem level. “Customers are moving quickly to get their equipment connected to the Industrial Internet,” says Carpenter. “This is true whether it’s in a single plant, a fleet of plants or a highly distributed set of remote equipment.” Overall, organizations are using Industrial Internet technologies to connect to manufacturing equipment, bring the data to a central location, analyze equipment downtime and efficiency and share this information broadly across the enterprise to drive efficiencies. “Having this information centralized is leading to new insights further improving company performance,” says Carpenter. And as businesses collect and organize this data in a way that can be re-used, the collective knowledge and domain experience of the enterprise “is being shared broadly in the spirit of a true learning organization,” says Carpenter. The importance of the digital thread Many companies have fully realized the benefits of Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma and other initiatives driven to improve manufacturing productivity. These initiatives are focused on driving efficiency in manufacturing to deliver production goals at lower costs with higher quality. “It’s the digital thread that takes these principles to the next level,” says Carpenter. The digital thread helps to lean out the new product introduction cycle from initial product concept and design, through manufacturing, the supply chain and, ultimately, through operations, maintenance and service. However, to leverage the digital thread’s full potential requires connecting previously islanded systems such as PLM, ERP, EAM, MES, M&D and supply chain systems. The main benefits of the digital thread include faster product cycles, high-quality products and lower manufacturing costs. Other benefits also include built-in feedback loops between the traditional silos leading to faster response to real-time changing market dynamics. The digital thread can enhance manufacturing in many ways. “For example, a great new product may be sent to manufacturing where it is determined the product can’t actually be built in volume,” says Carpenter. “This may be because parts with the right specifications can’t be acquired cost effectively, or state-of-the-art equipment can’t make the parts.” Traditionally, this is a very long process of discovery, re-work, escaped product defects and re-designs. “When the digital thread is connected, the design from the PLM system can lead directly to a manufacturing plan,” says Carpenter. And that plan can automatically produce the manufacturing execution system configuration and bill of materials. “Quality can be collected in the context of the design,” says Carpenter. And, if during manufacturing, non-conformances are identified, they can immediately be sent back to engineering for resolution. This closed loop, continuous feedback loop helps to ensure quality products are built and the risk of recall is minimized. The digital thread and big data Big data is a ubiquitous challenge for organizations. Many organizations are beginning to use Industrial Internet technologies to get insights from this data. “The digital thread creates new challenges in the big data area as the data comes from many sources—documents, sensor readings, event logs, Internet pages, databases, transactions logs—and in many forms,” says Carpenter. “The new challenge this creates is one of data variety all managed in a way that customers can generate insights across the data.” However, this is needed in order to get a true 360-degree view across plants and equipment from product concept and design through service and disposition. “For example, if there is higher level of maintenance for a given product line, it becomes possible to trace that to a change in suppliers, or perhaps ambient or other operating conditions,” says Carpenter. And these correlations have been difficult for organizations in the past. The future of the Industrial Internet “We are at the very early stage of a massive change in process with the Industrial Internet,” says Carpenter. “We are collecting and organizing the world’s industrial knowledge in a way that makes it accessible to the broad community of businesses, thus creating a form of industrial ambient intelligence that is always available.” The Industrial Internet, in the future, can be used to make better day-to-day production decisions, help new employees catch up quickly in new roles and find correlations across unknown processes. The economic and business impact in terms of productivity is significant, and organizations will continue to seek the benefits of the Industrial Internet in their manufacturing cycles.   http://www.rdmag.com/articles/2015/09/intelligent-manufacturing

Overcome obstacles