Week 1 worked to consolidate a solid base for the building that is this project. To begin with, I attended a great Rehabilitation Robotics Workshop, and learned about the research that is going on at ASU’s School of Biological and Health sciences. There were amazing presentations and posters. One that was really interesting was a gait-support walking exoskeleton for stroke patients who were at risk of muscle atrophy in their legs. Essentially, gait-training is physical therapy for people with prosthetic legs, where they learn how to use them, and how to properly support themselves with their new prosthetic. I also began going through the history of prosthetics and looked through some other papers. I wanted to learn more about prosthetics and so I decided to start reading about the history of prosthetics in general.
For my project, I hoped to analyze the forces involved with the simple action of grasping something, and then compare the data from a real hand to the prosthetic to see how well the prosthetic replicated this action. I realized that I could not only do this with a real prosthetic hand, but that I could also use a simulation software called MuJoCo Haptix. I realized that all of the tests that I wanted to do were centered around the prosthetic device at the lab, and that I could shadow one of the primary projects involving that device and incorporate that data into my project. So at the end of the day, I realized that I could use the simulation and the data from the other project to develop my conclusive outlook towards Prosthetic design. Yeah, a lot of realization, and yet I haven’t obtained nirvana.
For this simulation, I needed to find a way to get the software to record the data. Cue MATLAB!
Thanks to Mr. Peacher and Linear Algebra, I knew a little, but I needed to cement my MATLAB knowledge and learn more. I basically binge-watched MATLAB tutorials, learned about using the Haptix software and read through previous research that utilized the Haptix software. Although this process brought back memories of me studying for the Euro AP, it ultimately helped. I still have a long ways to go, and this studying will probably go into next week, but in the long run, this is going to help when I am analyzing the data that I collect.
Other than that, highlights of my week include Melissa Mccarthy's amazing skit as Sean Spicer on SNL, and the Iron Fist trailer, that was cool.
That’s A Wrap! Thank you!
