Tactile Sensing Fingers Device Using Quantum Tunneling Composite (QTC) Pills

  • Authors

    • Ahsana Aqilah Ahmad
    • Nur Izzah Lina Azman
    • Muhammad Azmi Ayub
    2018-11-30
    https://doi.org/10.14419/ijet.v7i4.26.22147
  • Quantum Tunneling Composites (QTC) Pills, tactile sensor, resistivity, rehabilitation, Hand device

  • This study investigated the potential of a material namely Quantum Tunneling Composite (QTC) pills as a tactile sensor. The properties and potential of QTC pill motivate this study to develop a new tactile finger device to increased muscle strength and functional ability of the hands. This is due to the health problems involving hand such as a stroke, Parkinson and carpal tunnel syndrome have difficulties to remain stable when grasping objects. QTC is a smart polymer matrix composite and a unique material. It acts as an insulator but in the highest compression exerted, it acts as a conductor. This is due to no electron can pass through this material when there is no compression. The experiments were conducted to investigate the sensitivity of the pills by plotting Force vs. Resistance graph. It is found out that these pills are capable to detect variation of force changing between 0gF to 500gF within 5seconds after loads are applied to the pills. In addition, the sensor glove device had also been designed using QTC Pills as a tactile sensor. Then, the prototype is used to evaluate three several types of gripping touches which are no gripping touch, light gripping touch, and heavy gripping touch of sphere shape objects (61.4g). The sensor should be able to detect the slightest changes in force exerted to the ball using this simple grapping action. The re-sults are visualized by using myRIO hardware and labVIEW software. Force values of the gripping action are recorded for each finger; thumb, index, middle, ring and small finger. This work hopefully be able to assist in a rehabilitation process and use as a measurement tool to quantity the patient’s hands gripping ability when compared to a healthy person.

     

     

  • References

    1. [1] A. A. Ahmad, C. Y. Low, N. Muthmainnah, and A. Jaffar, "Measurement of quantum tunneling composite resistivity characteristics for tactile sensing applications," Jurnal Teknologi, vol. 76, pp. 43-47, 2015.

      [2] N. I. L. Azaman, M. A. Ayub, and A. A. Ahmad, "Characteristic and sensitivity of Quantum Tunneling Composite (QTC) material for tactile device applications," in Control and System Graduate Research Colloquium (ICSGRC), 2016 7th IEEE, 2016, pp. 7-11.

      [3] H. Gray, Anatomy of the human body: Lea & Febiger, 1918.

      [4] HEALTHLINE. (25 August 2015). Hand Anatomy, Pictures & Diagram | Body Maps. Available: http://www.healthline.com/human-body-maps/distal-phalanges-hand

      [5] C. MacKenzie and T. Iberall, "The grasping hand (Vol. 104)," Access Online via Elsevier, 1994.

      [6] L. A. Jones and S. J. Lederman, Human hand function: Oxford University Press, 2006.

      [7] R.L. Klatzky, S.J. Lederman, Touch, in Experimental Psychology, ed. by A.F. Healy, R.W. Proctor. Handbook of Psychology, vol. 4 (Wiley, New York, 2003), pp. 147–176

      [8] J. Hallam and V. Whiteley, "Interactive therapy gloves: reconnecting partners after a stroke," in CHI'11 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2011, pp. 989-994.

      [9] L. Connelly, Y. Jia, M. L. Toro, M. E. Stoykov, R. V. Kenyon, and D. G. Kamper, "A pneumatic glove and immersive virtual reality environment for hand rehabilitative training after stroke," IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering, vol. 18, pp. 551-559, 2010.

      [10] R. S. Johansson, G. Westling, Coordinated isometric muscle commands adequately and erroneously programmed for the weight during lifting task with precision grip. Experimental Brain Research. 71, 59–71 (1988).

      [11] R. S. Dahiya and M. Valle, Robotic tactile sensing: technologies and system: Springer Science & Business Media, 2012.

      [12] P. Ltd., "Peratech QTC® Multi-force," 2012.

      [13] Schaechter, Judith D., Christopher Stokes, Brendan D Connell, Katherine L. Perdue and Giorgio Bonmassar. “Finger motion sen-sors for fMRI motor studies.†NeuroImage 31 4 (2006): 1549-59

      [14] P. M. and Rehabilitation, “Music Glove for Hand Therapy,†UPMC HealthBeat, 20-Apr-2016. [Online]. Available: https://share.upmc.com/2015/12/music-glove-for-hand-therapy/. [Accessed: 16-Aug-2018].

      [15] M. Borghetti, E. Sardini and M. Serpelloni, "Sensorized Glove for Measuring Hand Finger Flexion for Rehabilitation Purposes," in IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement, vol. 62, no. 12, pp. 3308-3314, Dec. 2013. 15

      [16] “Force Sensor-Enabled Rehabilitation Device for Rheumatic Pa-tients,†Tekscan, 20-Mar-2018. [Online]. Available: https://www.tekscan.com/applications/force-sensor-enabled-rehabilitation-device-rheumatic-patients. [Accessed: 16-Aug-2018].

      [17] D. Campolo, E. S. Maini, F. Patane, C. Laschi, P. Dario, F. Keller, et al., "Design of a sensorized ball for ecological behavioral analysis of infants," in Robotics and Automation, 2007 IEEE International Conference on, 2007, pp. 1529-1534.

  • Downloads

  • How to Cite

    Aqilah Ahmad, A., Izzah Lina Azman, N., & Azmi Ayub, M. (2018). Tactile Sensing Fingers Device Using Quantum Tunneling Composite (QTC) Pills. International Journal of Engineering & Technology, 7(4.26), 102-107. https://doi.org/10.14419/ijet.v7i4.26.22147