The main objective of this Senior Design Project is to develop a functioning Stewart Platform prototype as a model of the human wrist. A Stewart Platform is a parallel plane mechanism that incorporates six actuators, providing six degrees of freedom. For our purposes developing the motion of the wrist requires only 2 degrees of freedom. The pitch and yaw rotational degrees of freedom are required to produce the wrist motion. In order to achieve the wrist motion, 4 degrees will have to be constrainedthe x, y, and z translational degrees of freedom and the rotational roll to be exact. By constraining the degrees of freedom using the control system, we constrain the 6 degrees of freedom mechanism to 2 degree functionality.

Stewart Platform Information

The vision for our Stewart Platform (SP) is to provide a exoskeleton design for the arm to fitencapsulated by the SP. Inspired by the Raytheon Sarcos1 full-body exoskeleton, our wrist exoskeleton can have a wide range of application fields. However, for our purposes we choose to select the rehabilitation of stroke patients requiring neurorehabilitation. A known treatment of stroke related impairments has been movement therapy. Studies have shown that limb stimulation can lead to synaptogenesis and the re-establishment of the neural pathways that control volitional movement, potentially leading to impairment reduction, added functional capabilities, and reduced disabilities. As a future application, our SP can be used for muscle degenerative diseases (future application), specifically neuromuscular diseases like Inclusion Body Myositis. This disease is characterized by slowly progressive weakness in wrist flexor muscles. Therefore, our application is to provide rehabilitation through mobility-gait training with an assistive device.