We’ve started integration for our project.
The fiberglass mold has been completed and we were able to incorporate that into the overall brace.
This is a photo of the user wearing the leg brace. The fiberglass works as a brace for their leg while the aluminum parts go down the leg and act as housing for the motors. They also acts as arms to drive movement of the leg as the motors turn.
We made two fiberglass molds: one of the upper leg and one for the lower leg. As one can see from the photo, the molds are a little rough around the edges, but we plan to sand the edges and a little bit of the surface so that the molds are more aesthetically pleasing. The aluminum pieces running down the side of the brace are not taped onto the fiberglass (even though that’s what it looks like). The tape was used when cutting the fiberglass to approximate where straps would run.
We had one of our team members wear the brace for testing. We used the toggle handle to move the motor.
We also had the user wear and test the brace. Straps were attached so that the user could secure the fiberglass on their leg. Unfortunately, the leg brace did not work in this video (though it had been working prior to filming and they had been able to interact with it). This was due to our previous testing: the teeth of the gear for the knee motor stripped. (The gear was made of plastic, so we are looking for a metal gear as a replacement.)
The user had the following feedback for this iteration of the leg brace:
– They were satisfied with the toggle handle
– They liked the brace, especially how secure it was around their leg. However, the fiberglass pinched their leg, so they requested we trim the fiberglass for a better/more comfortable fit.
– They didn’t like the smell of the fiberglass.
– They preferred switches instead of buttons for the armband/user input.
We are now working on finding a replacement gear and to add the user’s requests to the leg brace.
