Weekly reports

Senior Design

• Worked on final touches before the expo

• Tested feasibility of final product

  • Incorrect movement caused two pieces to break, repaired quickly

• Took videos of exoskeleton in action

• Slideshow created for expo

Senior Design

• Second PCB for lower body finished

  • Electronics for MKII complete

• Started printing final components

• Refined final iteration of code

Senior Innovation

• Completed Business Plan

Senior Design

• Worked on assembling legs

• Upgraded arms

  • Wrist mounts designed and fabricated that mold and provide better fit to model

• Final PCB for upper body finished

  • Tested against both batteries

  • Missed grounding wire

    • After soldering in quick, circuit worked perfectly

Senior Innovation

• Pitch Competition

Senior Design

• Worked on assembling legs

• Upgraded arms

  • Wrist mounts designed and fabricated that mold and provide better fit to model

• Final PCB for upper body finished

  • Tested against both batteries

  • Missed grounding wire

    • After soldering in quick, circuit worked perfectly

Senior Innovation

• Pitch Competition

Senior Design

• Most of upper body assembled on MKII

• Started printing parts for legs

  • Went to machine shop to work on metal parts

• Started work on PCB for upper body

  • Materials taken home to be completed by next meeting

• Added proper connectors for linear actuators

Senior Innovation

• Gave practice pitch for pitch competition

• Refining presentation

Senior Design

• Assembled most of MKII

  • Test the fit of exoskeleton against model (Nick)

  • Discussed placement of padding for maximum comfort

• MKI Circuit

  • Reworked power delivery to MyoWear sensor to reduce signal noise

  • Final design of circuit nearing completion, ready for 4 duplicate circuits to be fabricated to control each of the 4 linear actuators.

Senior Design

• Continuing to print MKII components

• Completed the modifications for the MKI PCB

  • Attached MyoWare sensor to the board

  • Ran into problem with split power supplies

    • Even though power supplies were almost completely separate in component control, the grounds for both needed to be connected as the relays were getting power from different sources

  • Ran into additional problem when using AC/DC wall unit for relay control as the rectification was not reliable enough

    • MyoWare sensor values were not consistent enough for use

      • Fixed by using the 12V battery as the main power source

      • Relays ran with the biggest success rate so far

• Tested MKI with a one-arm pull-up

  • Took some time finding proper doorway to house pull-up bar

  • MyoWare sensor stopped getting readings after second attempt

    • Believed to be misplacement of pads and damaged connectors

• Next week will switch power input on Arduino and MyoWare to attempt to get more reliable readings

Senior Design

• Continuing to print MKII components

  • One arm joint is assembled, working on shoulder

• Acquired a larger battery to power the relays

  • Started reformatting board to accommodate for changes

  • Using two different power supplies

    • 12V Battery to control Arduino, relay triggers, MyoWare sensor

    • Large Battery to control mechanics of relays

• Went to machine shop to cut more parts

Senior Innovation

• Finished Lean Canvas and Elevator Pitch Outline

Senior Design

• Continuing to print MKII components

• Spent time repairing MKI PCB

  • Soldered new board that enables easier access to components

  • Broke a MyoWare sensor on accident when soldered to wrong power source

  • Ran into problem with board not getting power

    • AC/DC wall unit wasn't producing a clean flow of power

    • Connected circuit to battery which fixed the problem

  • Attached input jack onto MyoWare sensor to allow to easier use of sensor

Senior Innovation

• Completed Business Model

Senior Design

• Continuing to print MKII components

• Continuing designing and fabrication of electronics

• First assembly of Mjolnir MKII arm

  • Testing hinge mechanism of the arm

Senior Design

• Continuing to print MKII components

• Had components for MKII fabricated in the machine shop

• Tested MKI

  • Would not turn on when plugged in

  • Voltage regulator broke again

  • Placed circuit onto breadboard with only relays on PCB for ease of access

Senior Design

• Holiday - President's Day

  • Group wasn't able to meet in person

• Continuing to print MKII components

• Went to machine shop to cut some of the aluminum

Advisor Meeting

• Gave update on progress over break

• Adapted design based on advise given

Senior Design

• Continuing to print MKII components

• Brief in-person meeting discussing next steps

Senior Innovation

• Updated Abstract

First Week of Spring Semester

• Starting planning meetings for rest of semester

  • Decided on Mondays

• Most of the team is able to get on campus at some point in the semester

• Started printing components for MKII

Work Completed over Winter Break

• CAD designed for MKII finished by Nick

Senior Innovation

• Worked on Project Charter and Meeting Notes

• Gave Project Presentation

Recorded and Submitted Presentation for L3Harris Grant

Gathered data sample for the Myoware sensor

Senior Innovation

• Worked on Customer Driven Market Segmentation and project presentation

Electronics

• Wanted to add voltage regulator to Myoware sensor to see if we could get better output

  • Results the same with both power sources

• Nano was not powering up when plugged in

  • Determined with multimeter that voltage regulator was shorted again

  • Replaced part, circuit working perfectly

  • Feasibility test completed that proved workability as MyoWare sensor allowed control over arm

Thanksgiving Break

General Discussion

• Since completion of MKI is almost complete, we started discussing the implementation of MKII

  • Want a half body prototype of exoskeleton

    • Elbow, knee, shoulder (with 2 degrees of freedom)

Electronic Work

• Took another look at Nano not getting enough power before trashing it

  • Discovered it was a grounding issue, fixed with a connection between grounds

• Tried using electronics with Myoware sensor

  • Myoware sensor values not as accurate as they were in the first test

  • Tested both sensors but could not get accurate readings

Finances

• Discussed extended finances for MKII

• Looking to achieve the L3Harris Grant

Electronic Work

• Had problems with prototype

  • Relays weren't activating even though they were getting the correct amount of voltage

  • Found the problem with the voltage regulator

    • took broken one out and re-soldered board and was up and working again

• Started testing with MyoWare sensor but we were also having problem with the readings we were getting

  • after checking connections several times, deemed problem to be fried hardware

  • next week, going to try with different sensor

Senior Innovation

• Improved upon elevator pitch

Advisor Meeting

• Discussed further use of MyoWare sensors and the start of the second prototype, integrating the shoulder

Senior Innovation

• Worked on Elevator pitch

• Researched competing patents

Electronic Work

• Busy week for all so we discussed game plan for next week

Senior Innovation

• Addressed the difference between invention and innovation and where our project stands within the two scopes

Electronic Work

• Switched from N-mos transistors to BJTs

• designed a circuit to add pulse-width modulation to vary the speed of the linear actuator by controlling the 12 V rail

• continued to solder components to perf-board

• Began testing with Myoware sensor

  • obtained data for future use

• Attached MKI to Nick's arm with velcro straps and safely removed it without injury

Senior Innovation

• Started first week of IDE 401

• Going to work on first assignment at next meeting

Advisor Meeting

• Mainly catch-up on progress made and advice for moving forward

Electronic Work

• Soldered some of the components to a perfboard

• Obtained better cables and breadboards

• Circuit worked perfectly

  • Problem was due to bad connection from old materials

• Relays arrived

• Worked on a flowchart to help facilitate the programming for the joint

Electronics Work

• • Finished assembling prototype bread board

  • Arduino Nano successfully regulated the relays however when plugged into the actuator, one of the relays kept switching out of control

  • Discovered that the Nano was not powerful enough to control the relays

  • N-type MOSFETs were added to alleviate the issue

    • Unfortunately, one MOSFET was broken and ended up frying the Nano

  • Tested new MOSFETs, making sure they are working properly

  • Attached a new Nano and MOSFETs

    • Reassembled the circuit and received consistent readings before the actuator was plugged in

    • However, when the actuator was plugged in, whether or not actuator would function as programmed was completely random

    • Speculating that this was due to poor connections as it was successful for short periods of time

  • Plan for next week is to solder the components to a perfboard and try again

• Received most of the parts for the controlling circuit

• Assembled prototype breadboard with parts on hand

• Updated website

  • Created new logo and brand for the site

• Mounted actuator to joint

• Set future goals

• Discussed the logistics of building a shoulder

• Started ordering electronic system components based on the current design

• Created Milestone 1

• Added GitHub

• First Advisor Meeting

• Most parts for first design 3D printed and mounted

• Found an Advisor

  • Raviraj Nataraj, Stevens BME Professor

• Updated website

• Reached out to prospective Advisors

  • Still in the process of searching

• Assembled group

• Implemented website