BTY100-Lec#6.

3
Biomedical Engineering
Bionics

Created By:
Robinka Khajuria
(Biotech) LPU
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Outline

Bionics: Basic concept

Bionic Arms
Powered Exoskeleton
Bionic Legs

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BIONICS

Bionics is the application of methods and systems

found in nature to the study and design of
engineering systems.
In medicine, Bionics usually means the replacement
or enhancement of organs or other body parts by
mechanical versions or electrical add ons.
Building bionic
limbs with machine
intelligence that
can sense their
environment and
predict a user's
intentions.
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Bionic Arm

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BASIC REQUIREMENT
The bionic arm technology is possible
primarily because of two facts of amputation.
1.The motor cortex in the brain is still sending
out control signals even if certain voluntary
muscles are no longer available for control; and
2.When doctors amputate a limb, they dont
remove all of the nerves that once carried
signals to that limb.
So even if a persons arm is gone , there
are working nerve endings that end in the
shoulder.
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STRUCTURE

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Bionic Arm
Surgeons basically dissect the shoulder to access
the nerve endings that control the movements of
arm joints like the elbow, wrist and hand.
Then, without damaging the nerves, they redirect
the endings to a working muscle group.
To use those signals to control the bionic arm, the
setup places electrodes on the surface of the chest
muscles.
Each electrode controls one of the six motors
that move the prosthetic arms joints

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Bionic Arm
When a person thinks open hand, the brain sends
the open hand signal to the appropriate nerve,
now located in the chest. When the nerve ending
receives the signal, the chest muscle its connected
to contracts.
When the open hand chest muscle
contracts, the electrode on that muscle
detects the activation and tells the motor
controlling the bionic hand to open.
And since each nerve ending is integrated into a
different piece of chest muscle, a person wearing
the bionic arm can move all six motors
simultaneously, resulting in a pretty natural range of
motions for the prosthesis.
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BIONIC LEGS

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STRUCTURE

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Working Mechanism
Works in a manner Similar to Bionic Arm
redirect nerves from damaged muscle in
amputated limb to healthy hamstring muscle
above his knee.
When the redirected nerves instruct the muscles
to contract, sensors on the patients leg detect
tiny electrical signals from the muscles.
A specially-designed computer program analyzes
these signals and data from sensors in the robotic
leg.
It instantaneously decodes the type of movement
the patient is trying to perform and then sends
those commands to the robotic leg.
Using muscle signals, instead of robotic sensors,
makes the system safer and more intuitive.
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POWERED EXOSKELETON
is a mobile machine
consisting primarily of an
outer framework worn by a
person, and powered by a
system of motors or
hydraulics that delivers at
least part of the energy for
limb movement.
Function : assist the wearer
by boosting their strength
and endurance.
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EXAMPLE
Ekso
Bionics
is
developing
and
manufacturing
intelligently
powered
exoskeleton
bionic
devices that can be
strapped on as wearable
robots to enhance the
strength, mobility, and
endurance of soldiers
and paraplegics.
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EXAMPLE
Activelink: plans
to begin rollout of
the first batch of
1000 starting in
2015.
At its heart will be
a lithium-ion
battery pack that
can provide for
several hours of
general purpose
activity.
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 ReWalk is a commercial bionic walking

assistance system, using powered leg
attachments to enable paraplegics to stand
upright, walk, and climb stairs.
The system is powered by a backpack
battery, and is controlled by a simple wristmounted remote which detects and enhances
the user's movements.

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Problems Encountered
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Power Supply
Skeleton
Actuators
Joint flexibility
Detection of unsafe/invalid motions

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