Throughout the past week, it was decided that our group was being too ambitious in our design proposal. Therefore, from now on we will be focusing on a more specific design to perform specific jobs. In other words, as of now, our goal was to assist people with hand tremors perform daily tasks. However, there are many problems with trying to do so because there are many factors that need to be overcome. For example, our gripper initially wasn't designed to relieve tremors that begin in the upper arm- we were solely focusing on the forearm. If someone was trying to use our gripper to reach something from a cabinet in their kitchen, they would still be unable to hold their arm steady because although their forearm may be more controllable, their forearm is still shaking. Because of the complications with trying to help individuals with hand tremors perform all daily activities, our group will focus on assisting these individuals with only one type of activity. We will be focusing on creating a gripper that will help individuals use a key to open a lock and turn a doorknob in order to open a door.
In addition, materials have not been obtained in order to build the initial prototype. While waiting for materials to come in, a simpler 3D model was constructed out of paper. This is simply a model with no functions and does not have any abilities to perform tasks that the initial prototype will be designed to perform. Figure 1 shows the gripper from the front, with the fingertips in view. This is where magnets will be attached.
Figure 1: Frontal view of glove
Figure 2 shows how the gripper fits onto a persons hand. It is not possible to have a universal glove that will fit everyone. Since most people have hands of different sizes, gloves need to be custom designed to fit one's hand. This is a constraint in our design. In the figure below, the glove was made to fit the hand of one of our group members.
Figure 2: View of how the glove is worn
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