E.G.O : Electronic Grip Overloader

Sammanfattning: Humans use their hands on a daily basis, and they are a fundamental part of our lives both in terms of our work and our everyday activities. One of the key things that our hands allow us to do is grab onto objects. Unfortunately however, sometimes this ability to grab onto things becomes weakened, for example due to old age or diseases such as arthritis. This project was aimed to see if mechatronic engineering could be implemented to remedy this problem, while maintaining good accessibility and design. The resulting solution was a glove with pressure sensors and an integrated pulley system, which would provide a pulling force on the fingers and allow the user to get a reinforced grip on objects. A key factor in this design was to provide adequate function, without compromising form, i.e making the glove easy to wear and not clunky. The resulting glove provided substantial support to the test subjects grip strength, and presented a valid way to counteract their weekend state. However, the form was still considered too clunky and not efficient enough to warrant daily use. For future work, alternative pulley systems might be a valid option to slim down the glove and make it more accessible. Collaborating with people from the mechatronics industry, specifically those geared towards human augmentation, may also be beneficial to those with lacking experience or connections in the subject area. Conducting research specifically about what is considered “easy to use” may also be necessary to further solidify any changes in design.