Is there a Non-Servohydraulic 5 or 6 DOF Joint Simulator ?

[Radovan Zdero]

Does anyone know of a commercially available electromechanical (i.e. not servohydraulic) 5 or 6 dof joint simulator for biomechanics research? Thanks.

[Robb Colbrunn]

Re: Is there a Non-Servohydraulic 5 or 6 DOF Joint Simulator ?

Radovan,
I am assuming you are referring to non-wear testing simulations. If so, using a 6-DOF robot (or equivalent custom testing rig) is the only way that I have seen this accomplished. Some labs have custom designed their own systems (software and hardware) and others have designed their own software to control the commercial robot in their lab. The only commercial solution (turnkey) I am aware of is simVITRO which was developed by our lab at the Cleveland Clinic. simVITRO is hardware neutral and is designed to work with any commercial 6-DOF robot (provided we have the drivers). It also is hardware neutral when it comes to digitizers, motion capture systems, load cells, etc. Here are several of the 3rd party hardware manufacturers you can choose from for your system. Kuka, Mikrolar, Denso, NDI Optotrak, Motion Analysis, Vicon, Microscribe, Romer Arm, VectorNav, ATI. simVITRO is also module based when it comes to testing specific joints. You can choose from Knee, Spine, Hip, Foot/Ankle, Hand/Wrist, Elbow, Shoulder, and generic for non-biomechanics applications. All the control (force and/or position control) is performed in clinically relevant coordinate systems where we try to adhere to ISB coordinate system standards as best as possible.

Here is a link to explain a little more about it.

http://mds.clevelandclinic.org/Services/BioRobotics/simVITRO.aspx

Feel free to contact me to discuss your needs in more detail. We can help pair your testing needs with the right robot and everything else so you can focus on biomechanics research and not have to worry about building or designing a joint simulator. If simVITRO is a good fit for you and helps, great. If not, that is fine too.

Robb Colbrunn
colbrur@ccf.org

[Ton van den Bogert]

Re: Is there a Non-Servohydraulic 5 or 6 DOF Joint Simulator ?

Radovan,

If your application is wear testing, rather than kinematic simulation, you should take a look at the electromechanical simulators developed by Orthopaedic Research Laboratories (http://orl-inc.com/).

Ton van den Bogert

[Edward Morra]

Re: Is there a Non-Servohydraulic 5 or 6 DOF Joint Simulator ?

Radovan,

If your application is wear testing, rather than kinematic simulation, you should take a look at the electromechanical simulators developed by Orthopaedic Research Laboratories (http://orl-inc.com/).

Ton van den Bogert

Thanks Ton, exactly what I was going to say! Better faster cheaper when combined with simulation software.

- Ed -

Edward Morra, MSME

Manager of Computational Testing



Orthopaedic Research Laboratories, Inc.

2310 Superior Avenue East
Cleveland, OH 44114

http://orl-inc.com

ed@orl-inc.com
216.523.7004 office