ARMED FORCES
For the past several years, Columbia University has held its annual Senior Design Expo. Each year the Expo showcases more than 60 projects across all nine engineering departments and fields, from robotics to natural language processing - with an annual attendance in the hundreds. However, this year, because of Covid-19, the Expo was cancelled, and 2020 Senior Design Projects were finished remotely.
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Despite the circumstances, Armed Forces proudly presents our Theoretical Strength Augmenting Exoskeleton Power Arm.
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Watch the above video to learn more! And be sure to check out the design and processes that went into each component and the profiles of the people who created them!
OVERVIEW
Spring 2020
Armed Forces' Power Arm is an exoskeleton arm that can augment its user's strength by approximately 30 lbs. Using a series of adjustable straps, the arm can accommodate a variety of users with different arm dimensions. The Power Arm also attempts to be as ergonomic as possible by minimizing interference between the arm's power transmission components and the task being performed by the user through strategic packaging.
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The Power Arm consists of a frame with three degrees of freedom (two shoulder joints, one elbow joint). Two of these degrees of freedom are actuated by bowden cables which are wound and unwound by stepper motors mounted on the user’s back. The remaining shoulder joint is passively actuated by the user’s muscles. The stepper motors each feature a ratchet and pawl mechanism, so that the device can be locked into place when it’s not moving, thus saving power. The active degrees of freedom are controlled by a controller located in the user’s other hand.
THANK YOUS!
Firstly, thank you for looking at this brief overview of Armed Forces' 2020 Senior Design Project - designed to showcase the engineering skills and knowledge that we collectively gained throughout our Undergraduate experience at Columbia.
Check out our "Meet the Team" page to learn more about us!
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We would like to thank the cohort of professors from Columbia's Mechanical Engineering Department who helped us while we were on and off campus, the dedicated TA who knew the struggle, the MechE Shop and Maker Space Staff, without whom nothing could have been fabricated, and our few benefactors: StepperOnline and Yanks Mannequin