Adaptive Damper for Tremor Suppression
H. van der Kort (TU Delft - Mechanical Engineering)
W. Mugge – Graduation committee member (TU Delft - Biomechatronics & Human-Machine Control)
IJsbrand de Lange – Mentor (STIL B.V.)
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Abstract
Pathological tremor is currently not adequately treated with medication; it is effective in only 50% of cases and often does not supress tremor more than 60% at the cost of mild to severe side effects. In recent years, mechanical tremor suppression concepts have been developed, but none have thus far been implemented as replacements for current medication. This paper presents a proof of concept adaptive damper for tremor suppression. Results show that the prototype is able to attain a torque difference of 0.05Nm. Furthermore, the results showed that the prototype was capable of varying the damping torque for the same frequency. Finally, experiments showed that the prototype was able to differentiate between frequencies, meaning that the prototype provided a damping torque to an input perturbation only when a pre-selected frequency was present. Future efforts should be focussed towards optimization of components to increase the maximum torque difference. A working orthosis based on this concept could bring us one step closer to providing a stable life for tremor patients around the world.