03/02/2018
This week the primary focus of our team was on the verification & validation paper. We met repeatedly to discuss how best to verify that our product met our design specifications as well as how to validate the final product. When considering validation, we struggled to come up with a means of validating a surgical implant without the capability of testing it in vivo or in any kind of animal model. Although Dr. MacEwan has suggested that a finished prototype might be eligible for participation in an animal study OsteoVantage will be conducting in the summer, we determined a number of other ways to validate the product, including referencing literature values and comparing our final specifications to products on the market that meet our same need statement (Zimmer Biomet spine fusion stimulators).
Natalie completed the framework of the GUI so that all buttons and screens work, values are stored and changed throughout the program, and functionality between screens is integrated. The remaining component of the GUI is to implement the RF commands to address the screws via the wand. Nathan finished reflow soldering the RF transceivers over the weekend and Natalie plans to spend time figuring out their wiring and Arduino IDE commands in the coming days, first from the Arduino and then from the ATMega328PB. Nathan will then focus on wireless power transfer from the backpack to the screws.
In attempting to record data from our current output circuit, we initially used a handheld multimeter. Wanting more accurate readings and the ability to import recorded data into MatLab for plotting, we then began utilizing a DMM4050 multimeter. However, while the high-end multimeter was able to accurately read and record voltage and resistance values, it’s own high impedance (10 MΩ compared to the 44 kΩ of impedance found in a typical human spine) skewed our measurements of current, causing excessive fluctuations. Upon observing the extremely high level of reproducibility between trials, we obtained current readings by first recording resistance and then impedance for the same duty cycle and then calculating and plotting the corresponding current trends.
This week the primary focus of our team was on the verification & validation paper. We met repeatedly to discuss how best to verify that our product met our design specifications as well as how to validate the final product. When considering validation, we struggled to come up with a means of validating a surgical implant without the capability of testing it in vivo or in any kind of animal model. Although Dr. MacEwan has suggested that a finished prototype might be eligible for participation in an animal study OsteoVantage will be conducting in the summer, we determined a number of other ways to validate the product, including referencing literature values and comparing our final specifications to products on the market that meet our same need statement (Zimmer Biomet spine fusion stimulators).
Natalie completed the framework of the GUI so that all buttons and screens work, values are stored and changed throughout the program, and functionality between screens is integrated. The remaining component of the GUI is to implement the RF commands to address the screws via the wand. Nathan finished reflow soldering the RF transceivers over the weekend and Natalie plans to spend time figuring out their wiring and Arduino IDE commands in the coming days, first from the Arduino and then from the ATMega328PB. Nathan will then focus on wireless power transfer from the backpack to the screws.
In attempting to record data from our current output circuit, we initially used a handheld multimeter. Wanting more accurate readings and the ability to import recorded data into MatLab for plotting, we then began utilizing a DMM4050 multimeter. However, while the high-end multimeter was able to accurately read and record voltage and resistance values, it’s own high impedance (10 MΩ compared to the 44 kΩ of impedance found in a typical human spine) skewed our measurements of current, causing excessive fluctuations. Upon observing the extremely high level of reproducibility between trials, we obtained current readings by first recording resistance and then impedance for the same duty cycle and then calculating and plotting the corresponding current trends.