Smart Crutch Controller
Overview of the project
I helped to develop an easy to use and robust software interface for the Smart Crutches, a set of specially designed test equipment to gather force data between the patient and the crutches during experiments.
I have also participated in several experiments in the Balgrist Research Center.
The software, written in Python, connects to the receiver module via serial connection and decode the data stream from the Smart Crutches.
It is able to perform the following task:
- Real time indication of connection status, a connection label refreshes real-time to remind the user for possible loss of connections.
- Display and visualize the received real-time data stream.
- Perform data recordings and save the decoded data into CSV files for later analysis.
- Perform checks to ensure data integrity, automatically reject faulty data and calculate the data quality (good data points / total data points)
- Calibrate bias in the sensors by automatically adding a constant bias to the received data.
- Record multiple experiments in one data file by resetting the internal time.
- Sending custom commands to the crutches (although this is not currently implemented on the crutch side)
The Smart Crutch Controller was designed to be distributed to hospitals and test centers for use in experiments. Considerations regarding the target user group lead to a simple and user-friendly design with carefully produced user instructions.
To avoid issues with environment setup, the software was also prepackaged into a single .EXE file that includes all the essential environment and library setup.
Other experiences
I was also lucky to participate in several experiments conducted in the Balgrist Research Center, where I learned about experiment setup, equipment operation, and experiment design on topics related to metabolism, muscle activity, human gait and exoskeleton assistance.
The experiments focused on the effects on human metabolism with assistance from one of the lab developed soft exoskeletons.