Understanding Matlab!

Hello all!

This week I met with Isaac Romero. Isaac primarily works with analysis program Matlab and the data gathered during simulations and testing of the bionic ankle. He graphs and compares all the different data and determines what can be modified to make the prostheses work more efficiently.

Jeremy Petak, another member of the team, wrote the Matlab code that Isaac works with. It pulls from lower-limb approximation. These groups work together to dorsiflex (contraction of the anterior muscle) and plantarflex (contraction of posterior muscle) to create torque to move the ankle. First, Isaac enters the subject's information into Matlab which then is automatically plugged into the equations of the muscle algorithm. To estimate human muscle strength, the lab uses mouse muscle information and scales those to roughly a human leg muscle. Now, there are many parameters that need to be found to run the prosthesis. if they are not correct, the user could hurt themselves. So, these are found via simulations in Matlab. The output data is compared to real human data. The programs optimizes the parameters to fit this data as closely as possible. The most important parameters are the muscle activation parameters (how much the muscle is on). Human EMG (Electromyography) data is used in simulations. Isaac uses this information and plugs it into pre-formed equations to parameters required to find torque.When this is done, the software is ready to be put into the BiOM for human testing.

I am still working on becoming IRB approved.

Until next time,

Krishna Patel