Jack S's Senior Project Blog
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Project Title: Getting a Grip: The Creation of an Assistive Hand Exoskeleton BASIS Advisor: Heiko Brunken Internship Location: Trinity University Onsite Mentor: Dr. Kevin Nickels |
Project Abstract
Every day, elderly and injured individuals drop their glasses of water, struggle to open their front doors, and hold their morning coffee with trembling hands. Despite recent advances in prosthetic technology, many are forced to accept their situation when it comes to managing weak or painful everyday movements. This does not have to be the case. I plan to examine this discrepancy, working to develop a low-cost assistive hand exoskeleton specifically designed to improve the daily lives of individuals struggling with low grip strength. Currently, many leading assistive devices focus solely on rehabilitation, making them impractical for personal use. A cheap, mechanical, portable, and comfortable assistive exoskeleton holds the potential to address this gap in the market, enhancing the overall autonomy of those who face daily challenges while using their hands. As I work to create this device, I will combine a cable, pneumatic, or hydraulic system to facilitate finger movement with multiple sensors to track the desires of the user. Informed by existing research on assistive technologies as well as my site advisor at Trinity University, I will constantly emphasize comfort, portability, and ease of use as I create the best product possible. More importantly, I expect to highlight the value of mechanical assistive devices, documenting the issues that arise during their construction and encouraging further exploration in this often-overlooked field of bioengineering.
Week 10: Wrapping Up
Hello everyone and welcome to the final week of my senior project! I spent my time tweaking some final design details to make my device slightly more comfortable and wearable. First, I decided to add another actuator, meaning three fingers are now controlled by the device. In order to do this, I had to shrink... Read More
Week 9: Portability & Control
Hello everyone and thank you for tuning into my senior project! This week I continued to make my prototype more compact and lightweight, and I also made it possible for the user to control the exoskeleton without manually changing any wiring each time. To make the design more compact, I needed to shorten all of... Read More
Week 8: Making improvements
Hello and welcome back! This week I put everything together and made my device fully portable. Last week, I started soldering the circuit board and organizing the mess of wires required to run two pumps and a valve at the same time. After a lot more careful soldering and wire management, I was finally able... Read More
Week 7: Finalizing pieces
Hello everyone and welcome back to my senior project! This week I’ve been diving deeper into refining my exoskeleton design, focusing on making the connections more permanent and modifying some of the finer details to ensure the final device is both functional and comfortable. First, I worked on upgrading the actuator I built last week.... Read More
Week 6: Revisiting Past Designs
Hello everyone and welcome back to my project! This week, I mainly focused on the soft actuators and pump layout. The first thing I did was test out my older pump design using two actuators, with gloves acting as balloons. If you’ll remember from last week, I had planned to swap out this design for... Read More
Week 5: Soldering and Pump Design
Hello everybody and welcome back! My goal this week was to start assembling the final pump design for my device. Now, as you could probably tell from my last post, my pump setup requires enough wiring to become confusing and overwhelming fast. Luckily, I had a few tools to help me manage. Along with some... Read More
Week 4: Getting Experience Problem Solving
Hello everyone, and welcome to week 4 of my project! The pumps arrived this week! My first instinct was to hook them up to my Arduino and see them in action, but that would, unfortunately, be a bad idea. While my Arduino has a 5V output pin (the same voltage as a pump) the current... Read More
Week 3: Ironing Out Some Details
Hello everyone, and welcome back to my project! This week, I spent my time deciding on some design changes as well as researching and purchasing specific products I hope to include in my final design. First, I decided I would draw out my current design to visualize where some issues could arise. To recap, I... Read More
Week 2: Exploring the Electronics
Hello everyone and welcome back to my project! This week I began to focus on my project's software and electronic side. Per my advisor's advice, I will use an Arduino to control all the sensors and pumps involved in my project. An Arduino is a microcontroller board, which is basically a tiny computer attached to... Read More
Week 1: Creating a soft actuator
Hello everyone! My name is Jack, and below I have documented my first week working to create a hand exoskeleton that can improve grip strength, specifically targeted at those who need assistance when carrying out simple daily tasks. I will be working closely with Dr. Kevin Nickels in Trinity University's engineering department. During my time... Read More