1. Extendable Arm

2. Background Vincent Brown is the subject of our research. After being in a car accident Vince suffered injuries to his back that rendered him immobile at the lower half of his body, he also suffered injuries to his arms where he lost the use of his trice pets thus becoming a Quadriplegia and has been wheelchair bound since then.

3. Proposition Vince came to us at Wayne State University College Of Engineering with a proposition, he wanted us to design and fabricate a device to help him regain some motion with in his right arm. This device was to be light weight and able to pick up everyday objects enough to bring it closer to him.

4. First Generation The First Generation of the arm was a holed out steel tubing that housed another steel tubing that was used for the extension portion of the arm. It was power by a pneumatic air pump, and had a servo driven griper at the end. The arm was also outfitted with a voice command function which gave the user control over the extension and opening function of the arm.

6. Flaws The major draw back of this arm was that is was too powerful for the user. When activated the arm would shoot out like a bullet instead of having a control extension.

7. The End-effectors The end-effectors of the first generation arm was a two point gripper, which was to mimic the index and thumb of the human hand. This gripper was servo driven able to pick up small object as well as larger objects.

9. Flaws Wrist rotation

10. Voice Command The activation of the arm was controlled by the user giving a activation word, in the case of the first Generation it was “Max”, after receiving the activation word the use would then give the command. The user would either say “Max open” or “Max Close”.

12. Second Generation Although the fist generation had its flaws, it did form the bases for the second generation. This new model will be lighter then the first and have a new way to power the opening and closing of the gripper, it will also be one unit instead of a three unit device as the first one was. This generation will also keep the voice activation function that was used by the first generation only this time no activation word will be used.

14. Data Analysis In Designing the second generation of this arm we meet up with Vince to record data on the motion of his arm and the maximum extension of his arm along with the maximum reach of his arm and the maximum amount he could lift.

16. Progress Made Since the last update, we have completed the arm and have it operational. We have completed the voice command program that will recognize the user voice, also we have mounted the actuator and the power source on the arm.

17. New Voice Commands As stated we have completed the voice command program for the chip. During the last update it was thought that we could get rid of the activation word “Max” this would have made the code shorter and made it little easier on the programmer, but we now know that the chip we have choosen needs a activation word so that it can break out of its idle stage.

18. Commands/Actions We kept the activation word “Max”, and for the command words we went with “Grab” and “Release”. So for example if the user wants to pick up and hold an item the user would say “Max” followed by “Grab”, and if the user wanted to drop the Item the user would say “Max” followed by “Release”.

20. New Motor In the last generation of the extendable arm a pnumatic air pump was used which shot the arm out uncontrollably, now since we do not have to worry bout a extension of the arm we can use a more controllable Linear Actuator that opens and closes the end-effectors of the arm.

21. Linear Actuator The linear actuator that we have 4 inches long and can pull with the force of 150N, unlike the pneumatic air pump that had a uncontrollable release of air this one has a slower but control release of 5mm/s.

23. Mounting To mount the power supply along with the linear actuator we had to find something that would not compromise the weight of the arm, out solution was to use a hose clamp, there most commonly found in car engines. Also we found that if we mounted the linear actuator on top of the arm it would be out of harms way. Lastly as shown before our circuit was mounted on a bread board, in practice we used a PCB.

25. Fin Any Questions