Design of an Assistive Stabilizing Spoon for Parkisonism Patients

Project Title

Design of an Assistive Stabilizing Spoon for Parkisonism Patients

Project Area of Specialization Biomedical EngineeringProject Summary

Parkinson's disease is a neurodegenerative disease which causes the deterioration and death of neurons. The disease is characterized by both, motor and non-motor features. Specifically, the motor features of PD include difficulty in eating, walking, talking and causes other movement impairments. Among the motor features, body tremors are the most common symptoms of PD. With limited scope of treatments available, assistive devices can play a vital role in improving the quality of life for such patients. Thus, the study aims to design an assistive spoon that can help patients resume their daily life eating activities independently. The prototype would incorporate inertial measurement unit sensors and would be integrated with filters to stabilize and produce desirable movements

Project Objectives

1)    To design a cost effective prototype of an assistive spoon capable of stabilizing induced tremors.
2)    To test and validate the working of prototype of assistive spoon.

Project Implementation Method

In this project, we will use an inertial measurement unit (IMU SENSOR) for sensing the hand’s movement. The movement will then be balanced by applying filters in Arduino. These filters will be responsible for producing desirable movement and destabilizing the extra movement of the patient’s hand

Benefits of the Project

The increasing rate of Parkinson’s disease in Pakistan is affecting many people who have been enduring this disease with little or no treatment being available for them. The motor-features of PD affect the human movement which causes tremor disease in the patients.  They suffer challenges and problems in carrying out daily life activities such as eating walking, brushing, combing hair, etc.  With the help of assistive devices, we, as biomedical engineers can make their life easier and better. Thus, the aim of this study is to fabricate a stabilizing spoon that can help patients resume their daily life eating activities independently.

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

Arduino nano BLE

Grove-IMU 10 DOF

servo motor SG-90

3D printing 

solding equipments

Final Deliverable of the Project Hardware SystemCore Industry HealthOther Industries Medical , Others Core Technology 3D/4D PrintingOther Technologies OthersSustainable Development Goals Good Health and Well-Being for PeopleRequired Resources

Item Name	Type	No. of Units	Per Unit Cost (in Rs)	Total (in Rs)
			Total in (Rs)	57092
arduino nano BLE	Equipment	1	11189	11189
Adafruit IMU BNO-055 9 DOF	Equipment	1	11859	11859
EBL li-ion 3000mAH batteray	Equipment	4	1552	6208
servo motor MG-995	Equipment	4	2057	8228
PCB board design	Equipment	5	2000	10000
servo sg-90	Equipment	4	702	2808
IMU 6050 6-DOF	Equipment	4	1700	6800