Proper selection of prosthetic foot-ankle components with appropriate design characteristics is critical for successful amputee rehabilitation. Elastic energy storage and return (ESAR) feet have been developed in an effort to improve amputee gait. However, the clinical efficacy of ESAR feet has been inconsistent, which could be due to inappropriate stiffness levels prescribed for a given amputee. Although a number of studies have analyzed the effect of ESAR feet on gait performance, the relationships between the stiffness characteristics and gait performance are not well understood. A challenge to understanding these relationships is the inability of current manufacturing techniques to easily generate feet with varying stiffness levels. The objective of this study was to develop a rapid prototyping framework using selective laser sintering (SLS) for the creation of prosthetic feet that can be used as a means to quantify the influence of varying foot stiffness on transtibial amputee walking. The framework successfully duplicated the stiffness characteristics of a commercial carbon fiber ESAR foot. The feet were mechanically tested and an experimental case study was performed to verify that the locomotor characteristics of the amputee's gait were the same when walking with the carbon fiber ESAR and SLS designs. Three-dimensional ground reaction force, kinematic, and kinetic quantities were measured while the subject walked at 1.2 m/s. The SLS foot was able to replicate the mechanical loading response and locomotor patterns of the ESAR foot within +/-2 standard deviations. This validated the current framework as a means to fabricate SLS-based ESAR prosthetic feet. Future work will be directed at creating feet with a range of stiffness levels to investigate appropriate prescription criteria.
A high precision, dual drive system has been designed and developed for the Wide Field Upgrade to the Hobby-Eberly Telescope * at McDonald Observatory in support of the Hobby-Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment ‡ . Analysis, design and controls details will be of interest to designers of large scale, high precision robotic motion devices. The drive system positions the 19,000 kg star tracker to a precision of less than 5 microns along its 4-meter travel. While positioning requirements remain essentially equal to the existing HET, tracker mass increases by a factor greater than 5. The 10.5-meter long tracker is driven at each end by planetary roller screws, each having two distinct drive sources dictated by the desired operation: one slowly rotates the screw when tracking celestial objects and the second rotates the nut for rapid displacements. Key results of the roller screw rotordynamics analysis are presented. A description of the complex bearing arrangement providing required degrees of freedom as well as the impact of a detailed Failure Modes and Effects Analysis addressing necessary safety systems is also presented. Finite element analysis results demonstrate how mechanical springs increase the telescope's natural frequency response by 22 percent. The critical analysis and resulting design is provided.
Wind loading can be a detrimental source of vibration and deflection for any large terrestrial optical telescope. The Hobby-Eberly Telescope * (HET) in the Davis Mountains of West Texas is undergoing a Wide Field Upgrade (WFU) in support of the Dark Energy Experiment ‡ (HETDEX) that will greatly increase the size of the instrumentation subjected to operating wind speeds of up to 20.1 m/s (45 mph). A non-trivial consideration for this telescope (or others) is to quantify the wind loads and resulting deflections of telescope structures induced under normal operating conditions so that appropriate design changes can be made. A quasi-static computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model was generated using wind speeds collected on-site as inputs to characterize dynamic wind forces on telescope structures under various conditions. The CFD model was refined until predicted wind speed and direction inside the dome agreed with experimental data. The dynamic wind forces were then used in static loading analysis to determine maximum deflections under typical operating conditions. This approach also allows for exploration of operating parameters without impact to the observation schedule of the telescope. With optimum combinations of parameters (i.e. dome orientation, tracker position, and louver deployment), deflections due to current wind conditions can be significantly reduced. Furthermore, the upper limit for operating wind speed could be increased, provided these parameters are monitored closely. This translates into increased image quality and observing time.
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