Last week, our Master's student Maximilian Pirson successfully defended his Master's Thesis entitled "Autoencoder based Anomaly Detection and Dimension Reduction for Abdominal Pressure Prediction based on Gait". As part of his Master's degree in Medical Engineering with focus on research, he was able to work on a project at the Laboratory for Biomechanics for two semesters and carry out research work building on his Master's thesis. He trained various neural networks with simple gait recordings from the markerless motion capture system The Captury. He used a long-short term memory (LSTM)-based structure for the neural network to detect anomalies in the gait and achieve a dimensional reduction of the data. Using this autoencoder, he has also predicted intra-abdominal pressures (IAP) calculated with AnyBody Technology A/S so that gait analyses can also be used to predict IAP. His work deepens the use of AI in biomechanics and combines machine learning with relevant anatomical questions. We would like to thank you for your work and wish you all the best for the future!

 

 

Last Thursday, our Master's student Ferdinand Eisemann successfully defended his Master's thesis entitled "Identification Of Anatomical Parameters And Development Of A Detailed Musculoskeletal Model Of The Female Pelvic Floor".
During his time in the laboratory, he first carried out extensive literature research on the structures, functions and pathology of the pelvic floor muscles. Using the 3D model of the "Anatomage Table", he calculated the corresponding muscle cross-sections using virtual dissection. He then used the collected parameters to create a musculoskeletal model of the female pelvic floor in AnyBody Technology A/S. His work is an essential part of the project currently running in the Laboratory for Biomechanics " Prevention of pelvic floor disorders" (beckenboden-praevention.de).
We would like to thank you for your work and wish you all the best for your future!

 

 

On 14 March, the second workshop on "Prevention of Pelvic Floor Disorders" within the Interreg project BYCZ01-014 took place at the Laboratory for Biomechanics of the OTH Regensburg. Engineers and scientists from the Laboratory of Biomechanics met with medical experts from physiotherapy, midwifery, osteopathy, and anatomy to discuss their requirements and needs for a prevention tool.The influence of posture and movement on pelvic floor health was also considered, as well as the requirements for effective pelvic floor training.

Latest information on the progress of the project can be found on the following website: beckenboden-praevention.de

 

Spring is coming and we are moving our workplace into the sunshine.
Last Friday, our project on cervical spine immobilisation entered the next round. This time, in collaboration with the team of Prof. Dr. Martin Kieninger from the Department of Anesthesia at the Universitätsklinikum Regensburg and Bergwacht Bayern, the stresses on the cervicalspine during transport with a mountainstretcher in rough terrain are to be investigated. In a preliminary test, a test route was defined and Movella's motion capture system adapted to the conditions.

 

In July, the Laboratory for Biomechanics started an Interreg Europe project (BYCZ01-014), which aims to prevent pelvic floor disorders through high-tech prevention. By combining expertise in pelvic floor health, biomechanical modelling and ergonomics, this project will develop a functional prototype of a feedback system for healthy women aged 18-45. It will consist of evidence-based virtual human models in combination with non-invasive data acquisition, sensor technology and artificial intelligence-based software.

The project partners include the New Technologies - Research Centre of the University of West Bohemia, the Faculty of Design and Art Ladislav Sutnar of the Západočeská Univerzita V Plzni and the Pilsen Faculty of Medicine at Charles University in Prague.

The project's first workshop took place on 5 December at the Faculty of Design and Art Ladislav Sutnar of the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen. The research teams met with potential users of the new innovative system to determine their needs for the system: https://lnkd.in/d27AdQSB

The latest findings on the progress of the project can be followed on the following website:

beckenboden-praevention.de

A quick throwback to the preliminary trials for the continuation of our study to improve the pre-hospital care of polytrauma patients. In this study, in collaboration with Prof. Dr Martin Kieninger, the UKR and the DRF, we want to evaluate the movements of the cervical spine when loading the patient into the helicopter and during the flight on the vacuum mattress with and without cervical support. To this end, we familiarised ourselves with the DRF's standard procedures in the autumn and carried out the first trial measurements. After presenting these results and pitching them to the DRF, we were given the green light to continue with our project. We are already looking forward to the upcoming tests.

 

The past few days, two of our employees were at the UtrechtBCI group and recorded hand movements with The Captury together with our new collaboration partners.
With the detailed hand model we developed in AnyBody Technology A/S, we will determine muscle activities of the forearm and hand as well as joint kinematics, which will be further processed by the Utrecht partners.
Many thanks especially to Mariana P Branco, Maria Kromm and Sophia Schellander for their hospitality. We look forward to working together and seeing you again soon.

For some time now, we have been working together with the team of Prof. Dr. Martin Kieninger from the Department of Anesthesia at the Universitätsklinikum Regensburg on a project to improve the pre-hospital care of polytrauma patients. The project is investigating how the various immobilization options, in particular cervical support, affect the cervical spine. In the first part of the project, our inertial motion capture system from Movella was used to investigate different techniques for repositioning patients on the stretcher of the ambulance.
The corresponding paper was recently published at PLOS One:
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0292300

Based on the results, a further study evaluated the movements of the cervical spine during loading of the patient into the ambulance and during transportation on the vacuum mattress with and without cervical support. The aim is to find out whether a cervical support can be dispensed with when transporting polytrauma patients if immobilization is provided by a vacuum mattress.
The studies were conducted in close cooperation with Johanniter-Unfall-Hilfe e.V. and Malteser in Deutschland.

The Labor für Biomechanik is also becoming increasingly involved with the topic of AI. For us this field of research is playing an important role, particularly in the areas of prevention, rehabilitation processes and feedback systems.
Yesterday, we had the opportunity to pitch our approaches and thoughts on artificial intelligence at the RCAI Christmas Symposium. In addition to well-known industry players from the greater Regensburg area, it was also exciting to see what experience our neighboring and partner laboratories have already gained in this field.
A very successful evening with thanks to all the organizers