Treadmill with Soft Ambulatory Surface
Project number
25005
Organization
UA Department of Biomedical Engineering
Offering
ENGR498-F2024-S2025
It is well known that the composition of an ambulatory surface has a substantial effect on the kinematics and energy expenditure during gait. An example of this that is easily visualized is walking on cement vs. walking in soft sand in a playground or on a beach. While the effect of surface composition on gait can be studied by having patients and/or animals ambulate over surfaces covered with different materials, this involves the use of large amounts of material and does not allow for researchers to control gait speed. The purpose of the current project is to design a small animal treadmill that can be covered in different materials to facilitate studying gait as a function of surface material composition at a controlled speed. This is particularly relevant to understanding sand therapy in athletic training and to study the effect of regolith (dirt from the surface of the moon or mars) on gait. In the latter case the material has limited availability making it crucial to minimize the amount of material used on the treadmill and material loss. The treadmill will necessitate a mechanism to coat the moving surface with a uniform layer of a soft material (sand vs regolith) prior to the animal contacting the surface. Additional requirements will be collection of and recycling of the material after it falls off the moving surface of the treadmill. This will necessitate use of a mechanism to minimize aerosolization of any dust created in the process. A mechanism will need to be incorporated into the device to suspend the animal over the treadmill to simulate reduced weight. Finally, the walls of the treadmill will need to be transparent to facilitate video analysis of gait and incorporate an antenna to power a wireless batter free sensor implanted onto the bones of animals. Last year a team worked on this project and they were able to successfully place a uniformly thick layer of regolith on the treadmill. However, this layer was very thin and not uniform near the edges of the treadmill belt. In addition, the amount of recycled material was less than 90%, which would not allow use of material that has limited quantities available (ie regolith). The goal of this year’s project is to improve on the treadmill design by creating a thick uniform layer of sand/regolith on the treadmill that will better simulate walking on a surface made of the material.
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*****This sponsor will not be present at Open House. If interested, please sign up for an interview slot here - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1W7dSHnMc_Ctv9cJKZnKJFQZAyrteTTo9SU6sbt2iIBE/edit?usp=sharing*****