Design of Midline (Hand) Equipment for Cerebral Palsy and Development of Hand Assistive Equipment for Cerebral Palsy

Abstract

This project is mainly about design of midline (hand) equipment for Cerebral Palsy. The problem faced by therapist and patient of Cerebral Palsy is been solved by designing this equipment. Usually, the therapist will try to improve the patient’s midline holding their hand and hold it for a several minute based on their recorded time. The forceful action by the therapist may cause pain and discomfort, thus caused the patient refused to continue their session. These actions cause loss in learnings and improving their hands’ midline. Related to these problems, this project is about designing anew ergonomics and cost–effective product that has capability to improve hands’ midline of Cerebral Palsy. The requirement of products are studied and analyzed so that it can be applied to produce design. Product design specification and quality function deployment are done to measure and compare between several concepts. Some concepts are generated and the best concept for final design is selected using concept screening and scoring. The method used during the whole process is Double “P” Method to achieve and maintain both qualitative and quantitative of product. The technical drawing is carried out using design software which is CATIA. Other than that, selection on the best material and processing was conducted using screening and scoring. The forces, stress and strain are calculated by using Hooke’s Law and Finite Element Analysis which showed an acceptable force that human comfortable with and using only short time to use the product. A physical model was produce in order to show the pre-real of the design and also to show the mechanism of this product. The cost is calculated and some capabilities are compared with the other selected products. From the comparison, whether this design is better, it is stronger in structure and long lasting, makes it a reasonable price and wise choice than another design. The constraints of this product were detected and some recommendation were listed to let some improvements can be done in the future.