Introduction ------- Rehabilitation Engineering Laboratory

 

Sai-wei Yang

 

     The purpose of Rehabilitation Engineering Laboratory is to apply the theory of engineering mechanics on organisms to achieve the goal of rehabilitation. The motion in human daily can all be studied with mechanics model, and probe into the body present structure state and estimate the situation of using in the future in advance, the patient who needs to treat can utilize rehabilitation engineering to find out the rational way of rehabilitation, then he can be treated further. This analytic treatment includes the scope is very broad, including the medical diagnosis, operation and analysis of the medical instruments, the foundation and simulation of the mechanics model, the use of the medical material, the procedure of the operation, the material and structure design of the implant…etc.

 

   

        This laboratory is hosted by teacher Sai-wei Yang (Ph.D , Rutgers University , U.S.A. 1987), his specialties are biomechanics, rehabilitation engineering, CAD/CAM. At present the main research directions focus on the lower limb recovery; the present stage of research can be divided into three big classes roughly, wheelchair design and security assessment, orthopedic shoes design, and the mechanism, biomechanics and finite element simulation of the traffic accident and cervical impact.

 

l                      The research in development and impact test of the safety device; Utilizing self-made puppet with air-jacket and falling laboratory apparatus to assess its protection effect and design parameter. In order to find out the mechanism of injury, we also utilize the computer dynamic simulation to simulate the situation of the motorcycle traffic accident; Besides, we probe into the situation of the spine when it receives the high speed impact in a motorcycle injury, and then analysis according to the theories of biomechanics, kinematics, engineering mechanics; And we utilize the finite element analysis software to simulate the experiment and assess it. We hope to find out all relevant factors taking place in motorcycle traffic accident injury, and supply relevant research data and conclusion to improve and promote the existing safety device.

 

l            Analysis of the function and structure of the rehabilitation cart, the biomechanics assessment of this research pay much attention to the whole security of the cart first, and then assess the user’s protectiveness that the cart brings to him. We put the accelerometer on the self-made puppet and skeleton to calculate the shock power by the value of the acceleration, at the same time, we will utilize the high-speed cameras to film and observe the position of the limbs and each components, the outcomes we got can be used to design the limitation and position situation of the body support. Besides, in order to insure the cart’s stability and whole intensity of the structure, this research plans to have a impact test by the cart, we will push the cart to impact barriers at the regular speed to insure the maximum value of the impact speed and power that the cart can be accepted under the dynamic impact. This research plans to use ADAMS rigid body analysis and Ideas stress analysis to contrast with the experimental data, then we can establish the reliability of the model. Finally, we can change the design parameters such as size and design style, this will help for the design parameters optimization and sum up the influence factors, then we can save the experiment cost and supply the basis of the future design. In the future, we will research further into the different causes of disease and what parameter it should be matched, then it can help developing more modular equipments.

l          Shoes design：We experimented on human body with instruments to analysis for foot pressure, and then we could analysis the change of foot pressure when wearing different types of shoes or shoes composed of different materials.Further more we used Finite Element Analysis to construct frames of feet and shoes in the computers, and made a data base for foot pressure.After constructing a data base of foot pressure in normal human, we used Finite Element Analysis to design the shoes.At present we evaluated and experimented on the foot pressure of children with cerebral palsy, and then we designed appropriate shoes and made them produced massively. Now we focus on hallucis valgus, long-term standing, diabetic foot, Osteoarthritis, and comfortable high-heeled shoes.

 

  The application for Rehabilitation Biomechanics can be classified into pre-management and post-management. Pre-management means the methods to make judgments, such as using palpation or instruments to evaluate functions of body. Post-management means correcting by surgical operation or designed assistant, such as new form of insoles. The paths of Rehab Engineering Lab are below:

  

         Rehab Engineering Lab gives courses for members to learn the anatomy of legs, biomechanics, and evaluations. We also have introductions for the structures of shoe, such as material, type, and manufacture. The purpose of these courses is to make our members solving problems in there researches by the best way.

　

             The instruments we have for measuring foot pressure include EMED-PADER, EMED-SF, F-scan and self-designed optical foot-plate pressure measuring equipment (足底壓力光學式量測器). EMED-PADER and EMED-SF were bought from Novel Corporation by National plan written by Dr. Li, Mao-Chang, Dr. Lee, Shwn-Jen, and Dr. Yang, Sai-Wei. We cooperated with Hong Kong Dr. Kong FootCare (Limited) to purchase F-scan which American Tekscan Corporation produced. Self-designed optical foot-plate pressure measuring equipment can measure the pressure by detecting the area where the foot-plate touched on the hyaline board. These instruments have their own software, such as novel-win and novel-ortho of novel, and F-SCAN of Tekscan. By these softwares we can analysis data into  3D plantar pressure distribution graph(足底立體壓力分佈圖)，2D plantar pressure distribution graph(平面壓力分佈圖)，trajectory of center of pressure(壓力中線軌跡)，symmetric distribution graph(對稱分佈圖等) for evaluation consultation.

 

      The instruments and equipments to examine materials include Material testing machine (MTS) and strain analyzer (load cell) which can get the Young's modulus of the materials , stress-strain value, and digit materials of destructible points. Polariscope for stress analysis can observe the change of the materials while receiving stress .

 

      In finite element analysis software of the computer, it gets the object’s exterior according to X-rays , CT …etc. , draws the object model, and utilizes mechanics to analyze the situation of stress-strain and gets the data to assess . The software of the laboratory includes ABAQUS, ANYSYS, IDEAS , PATRAN …etc, analysis results of ABAQUS and ANYSYS are more accurate, but IDEAS and PATRAN are better in drawing. Some files between these four kinds of software are interchangeable, and it is convenient for application.

　

         In the past, Rehabilitation Engineering Laboratory completed researches mainly on establishing the normal people's model, including the normal children's foot-plate pressure database , foot-plate pressure and gait analysis of normal young people and old people, the mechanics of the femur and the mechanics of the vertebra. Having these foundations, the researches to the patients further continue, including the cerebral paralysis children, the foot pressure of the flat foot, and designing the material and appearance of the shoes. Most of these researches have the results of entity's experiment, and proceed the computer modelling in order to reach the auxiliary efficiency.

 

    

       Rehabilitation Biomechanics utilize the mechanics to apply in clinical. In the laboratory, it is a hypothesis which consider the fact to study over the years , and the results got by comparing on the experiment, which in order to refer in clinical. The Rehabilitation Biomechanics Laboratory mainly make up with four rehabilitation engineering and biomechanics correlated laboratories: Computational biomechanics laboratory, Locomotion analysis laboratory, Material testing laboratory, Motion-aid Device Workshop. The goal that can be reached includes:

    

•Evaluate the ration of foot pressure and analyze the results of every foot pressure with applicable parameter.

•Evaluate the ration of the orthopedics operation results.

•Evaluate the ration of rehabilitation program feasibility.

•Evaluate and complement the application situation which has on the human to design proper assistive device .

 

    

      The Rehabilitation Biomechanics Laboratory began to work from Yang have arrived school, and it has been established already for 11 years so far by the 82nd year of the Republic of China. The students graduated during these 11 years distributed on medicine and engineering, they behaved excellently and strove for medical engineering on one's own job .