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DSL-732

Project proposal-1

DSL732: Advanced Mat and Die Design

Topic- Hand Assistance for Paralysis Patients

 

Team Members

Shraddha Bhuwalka (DDS216020)

Arpit Khare (DDS216004)

Axat Srivastava (DDS216006)

Overview

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In this assignment, the main emphasis is on the selection of a project to develop the prototype of a product which is unique and creative, based on a novel idea and an out of the box concept. The product should incorporate all the knowledge of prototyping learnt throughout the course. It should be a combination of mechanical as well as electrical components.

 

We are a group of 3 students with two from Architecture and one from Computer Science background. We have been quite skeptical throughout the process of ideation. Also, as of now, we have been working solely on our product idea. These are our considerations while finalizing the project idea:

  1. It should not be too technical on the coding/electrical part.

  2. The idea should have some value / potential to solve actual problems.

  3. The project should not be too simple. It should be a challenging one. It should be one of its kind.

Introduction

 

The life of people with mobility issues, around the globe, has always been full of challenges. From day-to-today activities to personal healthcare, every task for them is challenged because of the lack of movement in some parts of their body.

With this design exercise, We want to cater to a very important problem of theirs, which is, to help assist them with basic hand movement independently with the help of the device.

 

Hand assistance for mobility issues existing in the market are mostly for rehab purposes to improve mobility through exercise.  But there are few options to help them assist in the movement and help in the day-to-day activities.

 

The concept is to make a hand assistance device with controls or motion/gesture sensors which can identify gestures trying to be performed and assist in performing them.

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Inspiration

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Many people must have encountered functionality or reduced mobility after an injury or a stroke. For example someone had a stroke. The recovery in this case is delayed and might take years.  His/her finger won’t move as it should. We want to make a device or tool that would help and assist in movement of fingers/hand.

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Intent

Our  intent for this project is to help people so that they can do the day-to-day activities by helping in basic movements.

 

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Goal

For this course of time, we shall try to achieve finger movement of the left hand. Target movements for the project:

Functioning (Ideation)

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Basic Function:
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First of all we would require the structural components (in the shape similar to rings) which are to be worn on the fingers. These components will act as a base for the mechanism to work. Consider one finger which bears a pair of three rings. These rings are connected to their adjacent ring with a spring at the side. These springs will keep the finger in contracted phase. Further, these pairs of rings are then interconnected with a common artificial tendon from the top (as shown in the figure). When the tendon is pulled, the contracted pair of rings will tend to open which will ultimately force that finger to unfold.

 

For this course of time, first we would try to achieve the mechanism for one finger.

 

Direction 1:
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The tendon will be connected to a motor which will pull and release it which will ultimately unfold and fold the finger respectively. The motor will work on the command given by the user with the help of a controller (button panel) which can be worn on the wrist like a watch.

 

Rather than using the motor to control the rings, a pneumatic controller can be used to perform this operation.

Direction 2:

 

Instead of giving the controls on the button panel, we can give the overall control of the fingers’ gestures to the other hand. For example, if an action/gesture is performed at the right hand, then that same gesture is copied by the left hand. This can be done by first sensing the gestures from the right hand and transferring the sensed data to the controller at the left hand, which then forces that hand to follow that particular gesture.

Components Involved

  • 3D printed structural parts which will provide structure to the mechanism and they are to be worn on the hand.

  • Springs

  • Motors

  • Pneumatic air pump (for performing contractions and relaxation)

  • Arduino (for programing some additional functionality)

  • Miscellaneous : Switches/buttons, Flex sensor, other sensors(based on requirements).

 

Some of these items may be optional, and will depend upon the strategy we use in future.

 

Skills Involved

  • CAD : For modeling the structural parts.

  • Fabrication : For making structural parts using 3D printers.

  • Electronics : To incorporate our core mechanisms with the structural parts.

  • Mechanical : For assembling all the parts to support the hand while performing required actions.

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How original is the design?

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Like mentioned earlier, most of the devices in the market are for rehab which helps in supporting the hand or an equipment for exercise to increase mobility. But we could not find something which would help assist in everyday activities. The idea originally started with the concept of a device which could understand the gesture trying to be performed and act accordingly. On thinking upon the idea further, we came up with this concept. We googled endlessly with multiple combinations of keywords but couldn't find anything similar. At the time of writing this assignment, we believe that the concept and idea is originally ours.

 

References

To proceed with our project idea, we looked at some of the existing similar projects on the internet. Our objective to do so was either to enhance the functionalities of the existing available products or to take inspiration from them and incorporate some features in our project.

The references are listed below:

 

  • The Second hand: more power triggered :

(https://fabacademy.org/2019/labs/cept/students/karan-tanna/week20)

 

In this project, a device is made in order to help and enhance the physical functionality of hand. This is particularly for the people with limited flexibility in their hands after recovery from fracture or injury. More details can be viewed from the above link.

 

  • Iron Man Glove :

 

This is a project as a part of a portfolio by one of our team members (Arpit Khare) during his B.Arch. We took some inspiration from the structural components and their assembly with respect to the hand which enables free movement of all the fingers.

Approach and Timeline

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