Design a hand orthosis to aid post-stroke patients with hemiplegia

Abstract—Stroke is the third cause of all disabilities for people over 25 years old. Indeed, the percentage of people who suffer from hemiplegia after stroke is higher than 75%. Patients with hemiplegia have considerable difficulty performing activities of daily living, such as feeding or grasping objects. Assistive devices for stroke patients have been developing since a very long time ago; however, some of them are not well accepted by patients because they are not comfortable, wearable, portable, lightweight and useful. This research presents the first version of the design of dynamic orthosis to aid post-stroke patients with hemiplegia to grasp cylindrical and spherical objects. The proposed orthosis was designed by using a cyclic design methodology called Iterative Design which is used for continuous product improvement; moreover, this paper presents a detailed description of the control algorithm and the electromechanical design in which a flexible power transmission element was introduced to perform the opening and closing of the hand. Then, a motion study was performed to determine the range of motion (ROM) of the orthosis. Results show that the orthosis is able to cover 88.8% of the ROM of the metacarpophalangeal (MCP) joint and 72.7% of the ROM of the proximal interphalangeal (PIP) joint. These results indicate that the hand orthosis can assist patients in performing grasping tasks. In addition, the main feature of this orthosis is ergonomic because it was designed using anthropometric measurements of the hand. Other features of the orthosis are lightweight (230 g), portable and easy to use. Index Terms—stroke, hemiplegia, assistive device, hand ortho- sis, dynamic orthoses, static orthoses

Design and Structural Analysis of a Maca Freeze-Dryer for the Peruvian High Andean Zones Using VDI 2221

In recent decades, the interest and demand for maca (Lepidium meyenii) have grown worldwide, establishing the tuber as one of Peru's flagship products, so adding value to it without losing its nutritional properties is a viable option to further increase its production and sale. Therefore, the most efficient process to consider is freeze-drying, which allows for preserving most of the organoleptic and nutritional properties of the food over time. The objective of this work is to design a compact and easy-to-use machine, which allows generating an added value to maca through freeze-drying. For this purpose, the VDI 2221 methodology was used, where a list of requirements was considered according to the structure of the freeze-dryer, a black box, and a white box, which led to making the morphological matrix from which the optimal 3D prototype was obtained. The result of this design showed that the machine provides 1 kg/batch of production and that the structure supported the size of the freeze dryer with a maximum deformation of 0.004491 mm, on the other hand, the part of the structure that supported the vacuum pump was prone to breakage. This research concludes that the use of the VDI 2221 methodology has the potential to structure the important functions and components for machine design, but another methodology is needed to help organize the processes systematically

Proof of concept of an ROV to measure the contamination level of natural waters in peruvian high andean zones

Robotic engineering has grown rapidly thanks to the use of underwater robots that began to revolutionize water exploration, providing better information in future research. The objective of the study was to validate the proof of concept of an ROV using a variable control and distribution system. The requirements analysis was developed using a methodology based on the VDI2206 standard. The study detailed the classification of underwater robots according to their autonomy, mission type and propulsion. In addition, it presented the general design showing the structure of the underwater robot, the central processing unit and the subsystems (communication, navigation, safety, propulsion, data acquisition and power supply). Likewise, the specific design presented the 3D modeling and description of the parts in the inventor software. Regarding the control and communication system, the radio frequency circuit was designed and simulated. The results obtained were the validation of the control system and distribution of variables for the proof of concept of an ROV. The main quality of the underwater robot is its stability and hermeticity, since it was designed to withstand a desired immersion process. Other important features are its easy portability, data transfer fluidity and corrosion resistance

Design and performance study of the heat exchanger of a fin-based thermoelectric generator via numerical simulations

Climate change is a latent concern nowadays, so the ONU proposed to adopt new alternatives for obtaining energy through clean and renewable energies; that is why the TEG (Thermoelectric Generator) have been used in different industries and vehicles as they are a system that recovers and uses the waste heat from automobile exhaust gases for waste heat recovery; therefore, it is a method that allows improving energy efficiency. The present study aims to design and study the performance of the heat exchanger of a fin-based thermoelectric generator via numerical simulations. In this way, the geometry was performed using SolidWorks software. In addition, the meshing and boundary conditions were established in ANSYS Fluent to obtain the initial temperature distributions. Additionally, these initial temperature distributions serve as boundary conditions for ANSYS Thermal-Electric to obtain the semiconductor's final temperature distributions, voltage distributions, and electric current distributions. It was obtained as a result that the semiconductor's temperature distributions reached a voltage of 80 mV in 1 second of heat transfer. Also, the droplets fin-base TEG had an average temperature of 36.85 °C on the cold side and 163.3 °C on the hot side. Finally, it was concluded that the semiconductor’s final temperature distributions of the hot and cold side for the droplets fin-base TEG presented higher uniformity than the parallel plate fin-base TEG

Automatic Sorting System Based on Sensors for The Extrusion of Filament Used in 3d Printers Based on Recycled Pet Plastic Bottles

The problem of the century is environmental pollution, which has a great relationship with plastics that do not reach a proper reuse cycle, from problems such as clogging of sewers in cities to a large increase in the melting of Antarctica, the excess of waste accumulated by plastics has led to seek innovative solutions. Therefore, this article focuses on the design and simulation of a sorting machine and extruder of PET bottles for the manufacture of filament, which will serve as base material for the 3D printer, this means boosting the economy within the regional context, the goal is to implement a new recycling technique to support the environment and improve the quality of life of people. The methodology that develops the study is mainly based on the VDI2221 standard, on the other hand, the type of research is correlational, non-experimental design. Then, the objective of the study focuses on the reuse of plastic bottles from supermarkets in the city of Huancayo. The result obtained is the manufacture of PET filament, which is given by cutting into strips the bottle previously selected by the system, and then, passing to the extrusion phase, obtaining a diameter of 1.7 mm. In conclusion, the prototype was able to manufacture a filament compatible with 3D printers, which is not harmful to people's health, since PET plastic does not emit toxic gases; in addition, it contributes to the care of the environment, by reusing plastic containers. Keywords—Plastic contamination, Filament, 3D Printe

Design of a Control and Monitoring System for Pollutants in a Handcrafted Footwear Factory

Autonomous systems provide a new approach to environmental quality control in the labour market, especially in jobs that expose the employee to concentrations of pollutants, which, if constantly exposed, can cause damage to the employee's health and well-being. Therefore, this work presents a system of control and monitoring of pollutants in an independent way for a handmade footwear factory. For the development of the design, the VDI 2206 methodology was used, where the technological information, control design and system integration are presented. All this will allow the system to perform a good collection of information of the main environmental parameters to then be displayed on an HMI screen in real time, also the system has a PLC controller to activate the air conditioning instruments according to the information received in order to maintain the maximum permissible parameters of pollutants, which are a temperature between 30 ° C and 35 ° C, a relative humidity between 30 % and 70 % and an exposure of VOC between 0.50 ppm and 0.70 ppm. In this way, the system prevents the occurrence of diseases caused by unintentional exposure to pollutants