University of Twente Student Theses
Design of the ActInArm : a novel planar active arm support for assisting people with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy during table-top tasks
Portema, Eric (2015) Design of the ActInArm : a novel planar active arm support for assisting people with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy during table-top tasks.
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| Abstract: | Men and boys with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) suffer from a progressive muscle disease causing the skeletal, respiratory, and cardiac muscles to deteriorate, leading to loss of independent ambulation, loss of upper extremity function, and breathing and heart problems. The loss of movement of the upper extremities causes a lot of problems in daily life and table top related tasks make up a big part of this. A big wish from boys and men with DMD is have an inconspicuous assistive device that can give natural arm support. Current commercially available devices do not comply with these wishes and do not cover the complete range of function and activities. The main goal of the novel device, the ActInArm, is to give active arm support in a planar surface from an inconspicuous device so that boys and men with DMD can move their arms again. The ActInArm is an inconspicuous device that consists four big parts: a hollow table, the actuators, an arm cart, and a magnetic coupling. Inside the hollow table the two actuators that move an end effector in the horizontal plane are positioned. On top of the table’s surface there is an arm cart in which the user can lay their arm in. The movements of the end effector of the actuators and the user’s arm are coupled over distance by the magnetic coupling. One magnet is attached to the end effector and one to the arm cart. Movement of the arm cart is controlled by the user’s own intention, giving a natural feeling. Implementation of the ActInArm concept showed that a user could move its own arm intentionally over a workspace of 410mm . 260mm with very little muscle effort. By hiding the actuators inside the table and replacing the table many boys and men with DMD already have on their wheelchair, the ActInArm can be considered to be inconspicuous. |
| Item Type: | Essay (Master) |
| Faculty: | ET: Engineering Technology |
| Subject: | 50 technical science in general |
| Programme: | Systems and Control MSc (60359) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/70624 |
| Export this item as: | BibTeX EndNote HTML Citation Reference Manager |
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