Publicação
Development of a Mechatronic Platform for Passive Tactile Stimulation Using a Rotating Drum with Embossed Patterns
| Resumo: | Here by it is presented Emily, an automatically controlled mechatronic platform for passive tactile stimulation using a rotating drum with different embedded textured surfaces. The stimulator has two DC motors and therefore two degrees of freedom, one from the rotating drum and one from the linear guide where the drum is mounted, which moves the stimulator along the guide changing the stimuli presented to the subject. The stimulator is a in house design built with 3D printed components with a versatile design concept allowing for a variety of experimental protocols. The platform uses a sbRIO-9637 with LabVIEW FPGA installed, which guarantees a high degree of flexibility on how the platform can be programmed to operate. The goal of this platform is to create an automatically controlled, versatile, and standardized manner of performing tactile stimulation while conducting parallel electrophysiological and psychophysiological tests to deepen our understanding of the neuronal processes underlying the human sense of touch. Emily comprises a series of advantages such as (1) automatic control; (2) small size and ease of transportation; (3) control of the motors rotation speed; (4) display of the contact force exerted by the subject in real-time by a force sensor; (5) stimulation with different topographies in short intervals; (6) the use of the sbRIO with LabVIEW FPGA embedded making the experimental protocol configurable, improvable and versatile, while allowing to view live the status of the platform with great accuracy; (7) low electromagnetic interference by the use of a linear current amplifier; (8) use of commercially available components. This thesis is a guide on how the platform was thought out, designed, and built, so that in the future other investigators can recreate, and improve upon it to further progress our knowledge of the neural processes of touch in humans. |
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| Autores principais: | Januário, Rodrigo Nogueira |
| Assunto: | Mecatrónica Estimulador Passivo Tátil Psicofísica Teses de mestrado - 2024 |
| Ano: | 2024 |
| País: | Portugal |
| Tipo de documento: | dissertação de mestrado |
| Tipo de acesso: | acesso aberto |
| Instituição associada: | Universidade de Lisboa |
| Idioma: | inglês |
| Origem: | Repositório da Universidade de Lisboa |
| Resumo: | Here by it is presented Emily, an automatically controlled mechatronic platform for passive tactile stimulation using a rotating drum with different embedded textured surfaces. The stimulator has two DC motors and therefore two degrees of freedom, one from the rotating drum and one from the linear guide where the drum is mounted, which moves the stimulator along the guide changing the stimuli presented to the subject. The stimulator is a in house design built with 3D printed components with a versatile design concept allowing for a variety of experimental protocols. The platform uses a sbRIO-9637 with LabVIEW FPGA installed, which guarantees a high degree of flexibility on how the platform can be programmed to operate. The goal of this platform is to create an automatically controlled, versatile, and standardized manner of performing tactile stimulation while conducting parallel electrophysiological and psychophysiological tests to deepen our understanding of the neuronal processes underlying the human sense of touch. Emily comprises a series of advantages such as (1) automatic control; (2) small size and ease of transportation; (3) control of the motors rotation speed; (4) display of the contact force exerted by the subject in real-time by a force sensor; (5) stimulation with different topographies in short intervals; (6) the use of the sbRIO with LabVIEW FPGA embedded making the experimental protocol configurable, improvable and versatile, while allowing to view live the status of the platform with great accuracy; (7) low electromagnetic interference by the use of a linear current amplifier; (8) use of commercially available components. This thesis is a guide on how the platform was thought out, designed, and built, so that in the future other investigators can recreate, and improve upon it to further progress our knowledge of the neural processes of touch in humans. |
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