Publication Date

2015

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

First Advisor

Zinger, Donald S.

Degree Name

M.S. (Master of Science)

Legacy Department

Department of Electrical Engineering

LCSH

Electrical engineering; Mechanical engineering; Biomechanics; Tremor--Treatment--Research; Hand--Diseases--Treatment--Research; Rehabilitation technology--Research; Robotic exoskeletons--Research

Abstract

Essential Tremor is caused by the contraction of the antagonist muscles in human beings and is generally defined as an involuntary, rhythmic and roughly sinusoidal. Although tremor is not life threatening, it causes social inconvenience affecting many of the daily living tasks.;The human hand tremor cannot be completely eradicated in the Parkinson's disease people but can be controlled using the technology. Tremor in Parkinson's disease can be treated using the drug therapy, but it leads to side effects in the long term. Hence, this study is attempted to develop a mechanical model and simulate it based on non-invasive methods. Before developing a mechanical model of human arm, data is extracted by performing experiments on the human hand tremor to investigate its properties.;This thesis involves developing an exoskeleton similar to the average specifications of a human arm to control the tremor, using the accelerometer as the sensor and motor as an actuator. The experimental setup consists of a solid cylinder made of steel based on two heavy load bearings. The two stepper motors are connected on both faces of the cylinder one on each face. One of the motors are connected to the ground so that it can create tremor and the other is floating without being connected to ground and this motor is used to counteract the tremor vibrations. The results are obtained in the form of graphs using the accelerometer sensor to calibrate the system.

Comments

Advisors: Donald S. Zinger.||Committee members: Veysel Demir; Michael J. Haji-Sheikh.

Extent

66 pages

Language

eng

Publisher

Northern Illinois University

Rights Statement

In Copyright

Rights Statement 2

NIU theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from Huskie Commons for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without the written permission of the authors.

Media Type

Text

Download

Share

COinS