Design of Passive Dynamic Absorbers to Attenuate Pathological Tremor of Human Upper Limb
摘要
Limb tremors, prevalent in neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s disease, often lead to social discomfort and restrict daily activities. In addressing this challenge, using vibration-attenuating devices emerges as a promising technique, considering drug sensitivity, treatment invasiveness, and therapeutic efficacy. This study delves into optimizing the configuration of mechanical vibration absorbers to mitigate limb tremors in Parkinson’s patients, exploring variations in absorber position and size. Controller efficacy is assessed by analyzing response magnitude and amplitude reduction across frequency and time domains. Findings underscore the significant tremor amplitude reduction achieved through vibration-absorbing devices, with parallel absorbers demonstrating the most effective configuration. Additionally, the study investigates the impact of employing more than two absorbers in parallel along the forearm and explores novel absorber designs tailored for limb tremor control. Analytical upper limb numerical models and passive controls are employed to estimate limb vibration characteristics and evaluate control efficiency across varying levels of tremor pathology excitation.