This is the age of biomechatronics, a time where mechanics and
electronics can interact with human muscle, skeleton, and nervous
systems to assist or replace limbs, senses, and even organs damaged by
trauma, birth defects, or disease. Introduction to Biomechatronics
provides biomedical engineering students and professionals with the
fundamental mechatronic (mechanics, electronics, robotics) engineering
knowledge they need to analyze and design devices that improve lives.
The first half of the book provides the engineering background to
understand all the components of a biomechatronic system: the human
subject, stimulus or actuation, transducers and sensors, signal
conditioning elements, recording and display, and feedback elements. It
also includes the major functional systems of the body to which
biomechatronics can be applied including: biochemical, nervous,
cardiovascular, respiratory, and musculoskeletal. The second half
discusses five broadly based inventions from a historical perspective
and supported by the relevant technical detail and engineering analysis.
It begins with the development of hearing prostheses including
middle-ear implantable hearing devices and the amazingly successful
cochlear implant. This is followed by sensory substitution and visual
prostheses that researchers hope will do the same for the blind as the
cochlear implant has done for the deaf. The last three chapters are more
mechatronic in focus, examining artificial hearts, respiratory aids from
the iron lung to the latest CPAP devices, and finally artificial limbs
from the first hooks and peg legs to limbs that move and have a sense of
touch.
Introduction to Biomechatronics provides readers with the engineering
background to analyze and design biomechatronic devices, and inspires
them to greater designs by discussing successful inventions that have
done the most to improve our lives.
