Tadej BAJD

As a scientist, Bajd researches motion in men and machine. Among his early achievements was a synthesis of minimal walking patterns aided by functional electrical stimulation in individuals suffering partial or complete spinal cord lesion. He developed several methods and devices for biomechanical measurements, including a computerised measuring system for walking, a measuring device for the assessment of spasticity, the measurement of joint torques in when standing up, as well as the measurement and evaluation of grasping. He focused a significant part of his late research on the study of collisions between humans and industrial or collaborative robots.

During the pendulum test, the knee joint angle was assessed with a double parallelogram goniometer. The paper describing the development of a measuring device for assessment of spasticity by the use of the pendulum test is after more than thirty years still widely cited.

1949 Born in Ljubljana

1972 Undergraduate degree, thesis on modelling of large scale systems, University of Ljubljana

1979 defends doctorate on the optimization of electrical stimulation of muscles, University of Ljubljana

1980 Assistant professor, University of Ljubljana

1981 visiting research fellow, University of Southern California, Los Angeles

1984 visiting research fellow, Strathclyde University, Glasgow

1990 full professor, University of Ljubljana

2014 professor emeritus, University of Ljubljana

Important Works

T. Bajd, A. Kralj, and R. Turk (1982) Standing-up of a healthy subject and a paraplegic patient. J. Biomechanics 15(1):1-10.

T. Bajd and L. Vodovnik (1984) Pendulum testing of spasticity. J. Biomed. Eng. 6:9-16.

B. Povše, S. Haddadin, R. Belder, D. Koritnik, and T. Bajd (2016) A tool for the evaluation of human lower arm injury: approach, experimental validation and application to safe robotics. Robotica 34(11):2499-2515.

Selected Awards

1976, 1982 Boris Kidrič Fund Award

1990 Kidrič Award

1993 Vidmar Award