Assisted Underwater Gait

This National Science Foundation National Robotics Initiative project investigates the ability to leverage Fluid-Structure Interaction in the design of gait assistive systems and is conducted in collaboration with Prof. Yahya Modarres-Sadeghi, director of the FSI lab at UMass Amherst. We are attempting to use the vortices generated in the wake of an oscillating rod placed in a fluid flow to impart forces on a hydrofoil placed within the wake. When a hydrofoil is attached to a subject, this system can be used in conjunction with an underwater treadmill to interact with the subject's gait in the same way a rigid exoskeleton would. Through this project, we aim to understand the magnitude of the forces such a system can generate, the appropriateness of these forces for modifying gait trajectory, and the ability of the operator to adjust these forces to align with the desired gait performance.