الفهرس 
IntroductionOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Hand’s motor functionality can be defected after being exposed to neurological events like stroke, spinal cord injuries or some diseases. Soft pneumatic actuators (SPA) are type of soft fluidic actuators (SFA), which are type of soft robotic actuators; the power driver for SPA is pneumatic power. Safe interaction, deformability and easy of fabrication are the properties that made SPA promising for the applications of fragile nature, soft handling and customization of design requirements. Rehabilitation improves the neuroplasticity responsible for muscles motor ability. Introducing a soft pneumatic actuator PneuNet type, that provides the four finger motions; Extension, Flexion, Adduction and Abduction for hand glove design. The purpose of the hand glove is for defected hand rehabilitation. SOLIDWORKS is used for developing the 3D modelling for the actuators designs. Development started by seeking a simple one bending motion actuator design. Geometry design of the actuator is the main factor for required motion profile achievement. Finite element modeling using ABAQUS software gives simulated response for design development. For bellow design PneuNet, the increase of chambers’ number along the bending actuator increases the bending motion at same actuating pressure. Additionally, circular and semi-circular cross-sectional area chambers PnuNets have better bending motion than rectangular cross-sectional area chambers. Fabrication of actuators is simple thanks to the simplicity of 3D printed molds. UltiMaker Cura software is used to generate G-code files for mold 3D printing using 3D printer. Enhancement for elimination of unwanted strains represented by the longitudinal elongation or radial blowing of PneuNet can be done by introducing fibers or 3D printed parts or layers of other materials. Combining Pneunets and reforming compound actuators give multi-actuations actuator, however resistance is added due to combining the actuators together.
Four actuations, actuator is fabricated and tested then reinforcement cotton fibres are added to improve the actuator performance. Results show enhanced performance to the reinforced actuator and better energy efficiency by 46% over the plain actuator. Prototyping control of the actuator utilise Arduino UNO board, the actuator has two IMU fixed at the two ends to calculate the differential angle between the actuator’s ends and so identifying the bending, the IMU sends its readings to Arduino UNO through I2C protocol. Pressure is measured via differential pressure sensor as an analogue input. Final control elements are represented by a control valve, that regulates the pressure reading in addition to four on-off valves one for every network of the actuator. Simplified interface is added as a mobile application -which is built using (MIT App inventor) platform- to select the exercise, the selected exercise command is send to the controller through Bluetooth module via Bluetooth communication. Measurements verification for pressure sensor is done based on Boyl’s law and using a syringe. Measurements verification for bending measurements uses camera recorded photo where the bending is calculated after digitalizing the photo using GetData Graph Digitizer application. Simple hand glove design is proposed, that uses some 3D printed parts for supporting the actuator and clothes scotch to be easily worn glove. More work could be followed for the improvement of the actuator efficiency and the user interfacing application.