Device Overview

Purpose

The ACS Assist device is designed to be easily worn by patients without interfering with their therapy. It is expected to provide support through heating and ROM monitoring that will aid in performing prescribed exercises with reduced pain. The design will implement ROM tracking and heating functionalities through a microcontroller unit that collects and communicates data to the patient and supervising medical professional. Consequently, the medical professional will be able to view the recorded data and communicate with their patient regarding therapy.

Prior to device development, requirements have been defined to further dictate the device’s development.

Requirements

  1. The device must fit the average female and male human shoulder dimensions
  2. The device weight must not prevent the patient from performing the exercise
  3. The device must support shoulder movement in vertical flexion
  4. The device must support shoulder movement in vertical extension
  5. The device must support shoulder movement in rotation
  6. The device must continuously deliver superficial heat to the shoulder before and during exercise
  7. The device’s heating element must shut off before an unsafe temperature is reached
  8. The device must record positional data during exercise
  9. Data that are stored from the device must be electronically protected
  10. The device must send collected data to a database containing previous measurements
  11. The device’s partnered software must allow a medical professional to review performance data
  12. The device and software components must be user-friendly outside a clinical environment
  13. The device must alert the user if the clinical range of motion is exceeded
  14. The electric components of the device must be shielded from external moisture and contaminants
  15. The user must be able to put on the device without assistance
  16. The battery of the device must last for the duration of physical therapy exercise

Components

Based on these requirements and discussions with a licensed physical therapist, the following design has been created.

Several materials were selected to be used as components of the device:

  • Arduino Nano 33 BLE – Microcontroller that will be used to track ROM data via an integrated Inertial Measurement Unit. Uses built in Bluetooth to transmit data to Android application
  • Carbon Fiber Tape – Heating material for device. Capable of heating up to 43 ° C, which is the recommended heating temperature for frozen shoulder therapy
  • NTC Thermistor – Utilized with microcontroller to measure temperature of heating component. Will act as sensor input for heating control system (to be implemented via Arduino)
  • Polyester Ripstock – Used as outer shell of device
  • Heat-Sealable Coated Nylon – Utilized to encase carbon fiber tape
  • Polypropylene – Utilized for strapping mechanism of device
  • Firebase – Cloud database by Google to store recorded ROM data