Mechanical and Mechatronics Eng Students Built A Haptic System for Hand Rehabilitation!
Meet our Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering Capstone Group: Juneal, Ethan, Stefan, and Dylan (Not imaged)
Why is your Capstone project named "Haptic System For Finger Feedback"?
Our capstone was called “Haptic system for finger feedback” because the device we've developed used haptic technology to apply very precise forces to a user's fingers, allowing them to perform rehabilitation on any hand or finger injuries that they might have.
How does your project work?
The way the device works is for the user to put their hand in, they would wiggle around their fingers until they reached a certain point when we restrict their movement at that moment. The encoders would be able to send that position as a message to the Arduino, which we used to control the device. Then that would send a message to our motors to apply a force in the opposite direction to restrict that.
Our code was capturing the encoder pulses, or how many times of the motor shaft was rotating. And so from there, we were able to perform some computations to determine from the rotations how far the user's fingers have actually moved. Then through that, we were able to determine the corresponding current that would be applied to the motors.
What were the mechanisms behind your project?
The encoders that were included in the device were used to track the position and the momentum of the user's fingers while operating the device. That in turn, decided what force was to be applied in that one specific time.
The encorders measured the rotation of the motor shaft, notifying the exact position and momentum of the user's finger. This also informed of the time and the magnitude of the force that was required to apply to make it feel like there was something there that was not actually there
The more that the patient was moving their hands, the more force had to be applied, and so we had to relatively increase the torque- Or increase the current that was applied to the motors in order to simulate the larger force.
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Looking back at your project now, is there anything you would change if you were to do it again?
There is a lot we would have changed. I think the biggest issue with our design right now are the encoders. A large part of the issue we experiences was our motor coils, the onject the capstan cable wraps around. They were not perfectly concentric. So as we rotated it, it was a little wonky, and caused a lot of friction as it was rubbing against the encoder. Looking back, we would have probably purchased motors with encoders already attached to them. That way we wouldn't have to mount them on the other side of the shaft and it would have minimized a lot of the friction that we encountered.
Another large contributor to our problems was, specifically, time. I think if we had an entire year rather than just one semester, who knows how good our project really would have turned out. But, for the given time, we did what we thought was best.
What language did you use to program your device?
The language that we used to program our device was C programming language and it was programmed in the software Arduino IDE in order to control the Arduinos that were used for the device.
What courses throughout your undergrad helped you prepare for this project?
What advice would you give to first-year engineering students?
- Engineering can be really tough, especially in that transition from high school to university, but if engineering is really your passion and it's something that you want to do in the future, you'll be able to get through it just through your passion alone, even despite how hard it may be. Your passion for the work and your interest in engineering will really push you towards completing your degree and doing all the different things that you want to do in the field.
- It doesn't matter how smart you think you are, it just matters how hard you work, and how much you really want it.
- Try to join as many things as you can. I joined a lot of random extracurriculars not knowing anything, just cause, and I met a lot of friends, and the friends you make along the way are what makes your program. It's not really, the courses, it's all the people who you're going to meet.
- I think university is some of the best times you'll ever have in your life. It really is what you make out of it. So if you put yourself in a place you want to really enjoy university, you'll have a good time, despite how hard the academics may get at times.
Congratulations on your graduation from TMU Engineering!
