FYP Weekly Report 13 April 2018/ Week 13/13

Good morning profs, external examiner ,fellow classmates and juniors, thank you for having me here today to talk about my fyp project, Mobility for the aged.
My supervisor is Peer and I am Douglas.

Today’s presentation we will be covering Four items:
1.Problem
2.Designed Direction
3.Designed Solution

Q&A
So let’s Begin

Mobility for the aged. Why should you care about my project?
Anyone? You should care because we are all going to grow old.

Ageing is an inevitable process and the body changes with age as it changes individual cells and the organs. It affects your appearance and your body function. It involves everything in your body, from head to toes. And you can’t stop degeneration from happening.

Today my focus here is to prevent Group B and C from falling into group D – Wheel bound.

There could be multiple issues or conditions that they are experiencing.
But this one disease has an increasing rate in recent years and it’s going to double up in 2030.

Its Osteoarthritis, in short, it’s OA.
A health Knee Joint has a well- covered cartilage around it.

And what is Cartilage? It’s a kind of gel that cushion your joints to move smoothly.
But an OA knee has bone exposure.

Do take note that OA affects other parts of the body.

And so what is the main causes osteoarthritis?
Over the years, the effect of wear and tear of the joints.
Injury that involves your joints.

And being overweight, you get affected. More weight more stress and pressure on the knee.

And this is the effect of OA.
As the bone is exposed, the rubbing cause pain, swelling and loss of motion of the joints.

Pain cause increased heart rate, increased stress hormone and this lead to more disease to strikes in.

Using this activities chart, I want to draw your attention to the relationship between osteoarthritis and muscle weakness as they are closely linked together.

When you are in pain, will you walk or would you rest more?

The elderly mental model is, I’m in pain, I should rest. But on the other side, physiotherapist and doctor suggest that building up the strength in the surrounding muscles can help to hold up the joint better which is what the elderly is not doing and leading to severe consequences.

These are the current treatment on OA. They are non – surgical approach.

After understanding the problem, I kept asking myself this question.

Like How can we reduce the pain experience? How can we strengthen their thigh muscle group or even provide them with the right strength and eventually improving their quality of life.

And so, my design statement for this mobility project is to create a series of mobility aid products for the elderly that empower them by enhancing their physical ability so they can continue to live actively.

The very first thing that I want to solve is how can I give them additional power to their legs to overcome the muscle weakness issues.
With all these exploration and research, My mobility concept is to power both of the legs to move focusing on the functionality, usability and aesthetic.

This development involves from having a back support, adjustable straps and garment concept.
The challenge here was if you are wearing this in the public, will people stare at elderly and make them feel insecure about themselves? And if I design it to look aesthetic appealing, how would it turns out?

The next problem that I want to solve is how we can relieve them from the pain from their knees?

My concept here is to design a hot and cold therapy device that they can use it conveniently.

This development involves from knee wrap to tubing wrapping and designing a housing for the device.

And with these two products, how can they come together as a package and flow with the same design language?

This mood board with three key principals.
Sleek with comfort.
Sturdy. – The language of reliable.

Smartly Detailed – with some details off to capture attention.

All in all, it’s a language that should expressed it’s Enabling the elderly to function normally and regain their confidence on their mobility.

With all the problems that I have stated earlier and the design direction I have set for this project, let me bring you to a day in the future with my designed solution.

X- series.
In X-series, there are two products.
X-1 is a powered Exo-skeleton.
X-2 is a Hot & Cold Therapy device.

These products are here to aids the OA elderly in getting them to live actively. How does it help the elderly?

X-1 is here to assist you by powering both of your legs to move.
Its designed to assist.

There are three main parts on X-1

1: Lumbar Support 2: Main Controllers 3. Thigh Support

The muscles has a lack of strength in it, this reduces the confidence and sense of security for the user to move forward. With an assumption of only having 30% of leg strength, the device provides 70% additional strength to push the user leg forward to make the steps happened.

How can this be achieved?  The electronic Components will be programmed using 70 W motor to lift up the user leg.
And how does the motor be activated?
It will be activated by this force pressure sensor. When the elderly muscles contrasts, the force pressure sensor will signal the motor to lift the legs upwards.

This is the tricky part which I need to emphasize. The motor does not replace your leg strength. It aids you to lift up your legs.

And how does the elderly starts the device?

First they wear it and they turn it on by pressing the on button, which will link it up with the phone.
The phone of having an app on the phone is to give information to the user on their progress.

This device is charged with a standard USB C type cable. Fast charging and long lasting.

One of the key features between lumbar support and the mobility device, is the ease of adjustment. Where the cushion can be taken out to access the screws beneath and adjust to the elderly waist area.

This is an exploded view.

This is X-2. Hot & cold therapy device.
Simply take out the Knee Wrap and wrap around your leg.

Press a button and let the device do the job.

The three key components. 1. Main Body 2. Knee wrap 3. Fluid Tube.

The function of the red button is to heat up the fluid up to 71 degree. This hot therapy is able to dilates blood vessels, stimulates blood circulation, and reduce muscle spasms.

As for the function of the blue button is to cool down the fluid up to 5 degree and not sub zero. This cold therapy is to reduce swelling by constricting blood vessels.

Behind all these buttons and screen, it’s the technical part.

Button Pressed – Signal sent – Controller – heat up/ Pump Starts running.
Timer starts.
Treatment starts.

From normal water temperature to the pre-set temperature.
A gradual change in temperature.

Once you are done with the therapy, you take out the knee wrap and get ready for the day.

X-1, Empowering your every steps forward. 

Lets make this design better, its our future afterall. Thank you!

There will be different sizing for everyone here in this room. Therefore, it’s important to get the right measure to fit the device to you in order to get the maximum effort.

FYP WEEKLY REPORT 26 Jan 2018 – Week 2/13

Programmer point of view.
What kind of motor are you gonna use and how is it going to lift up the person’s thigh?
And what’s supporting the exoskeleton?
Like when you generate force to lift something
There will be an equal amount of force

Anyway, those are concerns for you
I have no actual concerns regarding programming I guess. Since even if there is problem I can look it up online
But from an electrical point of view
You need to have the battery, a circuit board for the motor.


This design can accommodate both needs where a user can wear it outside or inside as they pleased.

You simply have to strap it on.

Suggestion:

Why do we need water?
Why not gel?
Why not a simple device straight to the legs instead of having a device?

The need for independence and the restricted movement will be a challenge to make this design work.

The debatable point here is, the target audience we are focusing on is Group B and Group C. Let’s take the elderly movement to the extreme and redesign it with that in mind.

FYP WEEKLY REPORT 5 Jan 2017 – Week 7/8 ( Recess Week) Mark VII


1. Printing Silicone Mold
2. Dimension for Mark VI sewing
3. Foam editing
4. Circuit board design
5. Look for suppliers
6.Insert foam image
7. Update the opening concept
8. Update the new motor size
9. Is it ok to push the idea further to assume that in the future we are gonna have a stronger motor in a smaller dimension and batteries that can last longer?

*Because right now we are kind of limited by the tech size. Size does matter as it affects the style.

What I foresee myself to deliver is two outcome, The ideal design as well as a working product with styling limitation.

For your advice, please.

Future Self, please come out with ideas on how to separate the tech and the fabric for washing purpose. This is the direction of Mark VIII.- Velcro tech.