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 Presentation Week 13/13

Good morning profs and fellow classmates, today I will be presenting on my fyp project, Mobility for the aged.
My supervisor is Peer and I am Douglas.

And Lets recap on the design brief:
To create a series of mobility aid product for the elderly that empower them by enhancing their physical ability so they can continue to live actively.

Now, I would like to draw your attention to my target audience.

The Target Audiences that I am working on are group b and group c. The reason behind is to prevent them from falling into group d which is wheelchair bounded.

Question: Why do they need a walking cane?

They could have 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.
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 then more disease strikes in.

After having a brief understanding of what is OA, this is an activities chart to understand the elderly point of view.

I want to draw your attention to the relationship between osteoarthritis and muscle weakness as they are closely linked together and we have to be very clear on the reason behind this degenerative process.

I would now go through the process of an elderly suffering from OA.

We first start off with a swelling knee.
Standing up.
Back aching pain.
Ok pain. Enough. I’m going to take a rest. And this goes on and on and to the extent, they hardly move around.
This cause muscles weakness because you don’t use it, you lose it.

Now I will bring your attention to a day in the future with an OA elderly
With all the problems that I have stated earlier, here’s my design concept.

Hot and Cold therapy is used to improve the swelling and stiffness of the affected knee.

What is so special?

Plug in and let the water flow.
1. The temperature will change gradually instead of giving you a sudden temperature change. Therefore giving the elderly a smoother transition in responding to the temperature change.

2. Preserving water
The water will return to the water containment and it can be reused for the next treatment.

Elevated seat with the help of using an airbag.
In the normal airbag, the direct of elevated is directed upwards.

However, the design airbag is tilted forward to a degree of 60. This is to allow the user to activate his weaker thigh muscles to have a better standing and stability.

This slide is to prove that the airbag experiment works.
A standing Docking system is required for three main purpose.
1. A reference point where the user will stand on top of the foot print and align his body to the exoskeleton.

2. The docking system will be activated and the wings will push the strapes to the user. This prompts the user on where is the important point to be secure.

3. Charging port when the exoskeleton is returned to the docking system.
With this exoskeleton, it powered both legs to move.
Why is this required? As the weaker thigh muscles have 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.

The power of the motion will only be generated when the user moves his leg forwards. It moves with the will of the user and not against it.

The lumbar support helps to improve the back posture. This is the mounting process and the potential problem here is how can we prevent the user from bending down to adjust the strape.
The simplest solution to this is to make the user sit down to mount the strape.

A quick overview of this system control over the four products. 

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

A possible way of bringing all the components into one chair.
Comments: There is no flexibility and its like an osim chair.

 

 

Professors Feedback:

1. Garment concept
Wear it underneath the shirt or dress.
Perhaps we can consider using swimsuit and build in the technology.

Follow up action:
We will collate the response of how people view this product and give a better understanding of user acceptance
1. Exposed exoskeleton
2. Exoskeleton garment.

2. Do you still require a Walking Stick?

This exoskeleton provides strength instead of stability and if the user is in Group B, we are trying to improve his condition to bring him back to Group A, walking without walking stick.

3. Is this for an outdoor use or indoor use?

Its built to bring the user from Point A to Point B.
It can be both.

4. Comment from the professors and classmates: 
If that is the case, why not make it a physiotherapy device?

Answer:
I feel that we shouldn’t limit our point of view in just making it into a physiotherapy device. In this one year, I feel that my role is to explore all the possibilities that this device has and put it out there for other researchers and developers to explore more in whichever categories they are interested in and develop it further. I’m working towards a design strategy and vision for this project.

If this device can do both, being a physiotherapy and a personal mobility device, why not? What we have to deal with is the programming setting and understanding the human natural walking movement.

 

FYP Weekly Report: 3 Nov 2017 – Week 11/13

Good morning profs and fellow classmates, this is my fyp topic, mobility for the aged. Presentation 2.

My supervisor is Peer and my name is Douglas Lim.

First, I would like to do a recap on what was discussed on the previous presentation.

This is the design brief that I am working on for the past 12 weeks.

The Target Audiences that I am working on are group b and group c.

The reason behind is to prevent them from falling into group d which is wheelchair bound.

Zooming into group b and c, they could have multiple issues or conditions that can be prevented and improved.

Why are we trying so hard to get them moving?
By moving around, it helps to improve their conditions and preventing more diseases to strike.

Design features:
1. Hot and cold theory
Is to resolve swelling and soreness in their knee joints.

What is so special?
Plug in and flow the water.

 

2. Airbag concept
What is for?
Different levels of elevation to support the user. It grows to give you strength.

Design challenge:
A. An active system is required.

 

3. Docking system
What is it for?
For ease of mounting as compared to mounting in suspension. A reference point gives guidance to the user on where to mount on their body.

You sit down and mount the powered exoskeleton on.

Design challenge:
A. Sizing issues. Ergonomic.

 

4. Powered exoskeleton
A mobility aid to give you additional support to move your thigh forward.

An additional of lumbar support is provided to help the elderly strengthen his her back posture to prevent bent lumbar conditions.

Design challenges:
A. Sizing (making it modular, we measure the waist then we plug in the key components to the length)

5. The interactive control
A system control is provided to give guidance to the user.

A monitoring system for the physiotherapist on the mileage clocks in. To determine the health conditions of the user.

Design considerations:
A. Interact with it. Gives you a sense of control
B. Find data for the medical expert to gauge the health condition.
C. Setting control of your machine.

With that in mind, I would now put the facts on the table on the value of this project and why it matters to all of us?
This mobility project value increases after deep research. I wouldn’t say that ageing is scary, it’s the uncertainty that we are dealing with which makes us insecure when it comes. And to deal with it, it is about making things better for them, for our parents and eventually for us to be ready for it.

When we are dealing with this project, we thought we know a lot about elderly, so we tend to assume but when we go down deep into research, elderly have their aspirations, they want their freedom to move around they want to be by themselves but eventually it didn’t turn out that way because of different reasons and restrictions.

Therefore this project deals with what we are uncertain and builds on credible foundations and future views on it.

 

FYP Weekly Report: 29 SEPT 2017 & 6 OCT 2017 – Week 7/13 Recess Week

Refinements have to be work on for both Airbag concept & Structure Concept.

Airbag Concept:
Is there another way to make the airbag to have lesser steps to be activated?
Explore the concept of offload mechanism.

Structure Concept:
Learning from being uncomfortable.
In this experiment, there were many discomforts when using the product. With these discomforts, the design approach and intention was clearly displayed.

A lesson about failure.
I was never afraid of failure. I feel that it’s a good thing to make us think better. Being wrong is a good thing because it makes you uncomfortable to think of a way out or to do something to improve the situation.

Then, you know what is it that you truly want to achieve.

If you are too comfortable, you don’t think.