This document summarizes a student project to design a wearable device that can suppress tremors caused by Parkinson's disease. The device uses a spring-mass absorber attached to the hand that is designed to match and absorb the frequency of tremors, which range from 2-12 Hz. Experimental results showed the absorber was effective at reducing tremors across different stiffness settings, demonstrating the potential for a self-tuning device to constantly match changing tremor frequencies. The goal of the project was to create an affordable, safe engineering solution to help address tremors experienced by Parkinson's patients.

1. FINAL YEAR PROJECT (FYP) 2 SEMESTER 1 2010/2011
ELECTRICAL & COMPUTER ENGINEERING
Adapted from IRIE 2010 template
NAHEED RIHAN - 1113419
A self-tuning device for Parkinson’s
Disease Tremor Suppression
Abstract
Parkinson’s disease is a disorder of the central nervous system whose
symptoms and effects are clearly evident in the physical movement and
appearance of the patient. Caused by the death of dopamine creating cells,
the disease shows its early signs in the form of tremors that develop and
intensify over time. This report seeks to create a wearable device that is
capable of suppressing these tremors regardless of the magnitude and
frequency of the tremor (within specific range). The tremors will be
suppressed by attaching an absorber to the hand. An absorber will suppress
the tremor once its natural frequency matches the frequency at which the
hand is shaking at due to the tremor. The absorber used in this project is a
spring – mass system and the device was designed for a mannequin hand
to which a vibration shaker was attached to, to simulate the Parkinson’s
tremors. Fulfilling its main objective, the absorber absorbed the tremors
whenever it experienced a tremor close to, or at its natural frequency. And it
was proven that when the stiffness of the absorber (spring-mass system)
was changed, different ranges of tremors were absorbed. Thus proving that
by varying the stiffness of the absorber, its natural frequency can be made to
constantly match the frequency of the hand in order to constantly absorb the
Parkinson’s tremors
Research Methodology
• Literature review of the different research and studies into
Parkinson’s disease, vibration suppression and Parkinson’s tremor
suppression.
• The system was modelled in to a two degree-of-freedom mass-
spring-damper system from which ideal mathematical equations
modelling the whole setup were derived.
• These equations were used to study the response of the modelled
hand with and without the modelled absorber. Step, Impulse and
Frequency responses were used for this study.
• After having proved the project on simulations (ideally) the prototype
design took place during which a lot of practical issues were
considered.
• Using the designed prototype, experiments were run and inferences
and conclusions were made
Problem Statement
There exist medical solutions to the issues faced by the
Parkinson’s patients with regards to the tremors. For example the
L-Dopa drug, Deep Brain Stimulation, Pallidotomy but
unfortunately between the progressive nature of the disease and
the cost of these medical solution there is a desperate need for an
efficient, safe, cheap engineering solution. These are the goals that
this project will seek to accomplish.
Results and Discussion
The experimental setup is as shown in the figures:
The Digital Signal Analyzer (DSA) is used both as an input and a
display of the transfer function between the input and the output.
Here, the input is the sine sweep ranging from 2-12 Hz and the
output is the reading from the accelerometer. The following are the
results obtained:
The blue line indicates the response of the hand without the absorber
and the orange line indicates the response of the hand with the
absorber and as it is seen, different modes of absorption was
achieved for different stiffness variations of the absorber.
Conclusion
A cheap, light and safe device was fabricated within which the
absorber used was a spring-mass system. This device was attached
to a mannequin hand in order to run experiments and confirm the
validity and functionality of the initial prototype. The prototype was
subjected to a range of recorded Parkinson’s tremor vibrations (2-12
Hz) and from which the results above were observed. It is clear from
the results that the absorber is indeed absorbing the tremors
experienced by the hand and that by varying the stiffness of the
absorber, different modes of absorption can be achieved hinting at
the very likely possibility of a system that could vary it’s stiffness by
itself to constantly absorb the tremors experienced.
Mechatronics Engineering Department
Faculty of Engineering
International Islamic University Malaysia
Project Objectives
1. To design and develop a wearable device to suppress the
tremors experienced by the PD patient.
2. To create the working prototype.
3. To analyse and study its performance under different
conditions.
4. To suggest alterations and modifications for further study
and improvements.