Thumb up

Background

The stroke, which is known as one of the neurological diseases, will cause proprioceptive deficits, impacting an individual's ability to perceive and control limb position. The severe consequence of this disease leads to a hard life that even the patient survives. The impact of proprioception is enormous, and the rehabilitation training is time and money. Robotic devices can be used to supplement traditional therapy to increase the time and intensity of exercises devoted to hand rehabilitation (both in the clinic and the home setting).

Team roles

Linyue Tan: Responsible for programming and desig the interactive games that will engage users in their rehabilitation exercises. Includes programming the control system and connecting the circuitry. I will also take the lead in validating the device's effectiveness through experiments with healthy participants, optimizing performance based on feedback.

Guanlin Qu: Will lead the structural design and modeling of the device, ensuring it is both ergonomic and portable. Includes designing mechanical structures, drawing, modeling, and assisting in manufacturing of the robot. Review existing rehabilitation robot designed by the PhD students.

Fangxu Fu: Assists in structural design and modeling, collaborating to achieve a compact and user-friendly design. Conceptualize the design, conduct 3D modeling, and help manufacture the final device. Assist with the arrangement of the assignments and other support work.

Huaiyi Zhang: Primarily responsible for component procurement, ensuring that all parts are both high quality and compatible with the device’s specifications. Responsible for the mechanical structure design of the equipment and the assembly and debugging of the device. Conduct the selection and installation of electric actuators and ensure the stability and operability of the device.

Goals and Objectives

Firstly, the main goal of our project is to design a device that can assess the proprioception of thump using the same paradigm as SomatoCircleJump (a program given by our sponsor). So, our team’s name should be related to the thumb. Secondly, the final goal is to help the traditional therapy and let the patients move their fingers again. Based on the background, we think that as the patient’s thumb is down during illness and if the patient can be cured, they can move the thumb again, including going up. Also, the direction up stands for the meaning of hope, which is always possible to be cured.