Development of Automatic Cervical Brace for Neck Pain Rehabilitation

Conventional cervical braces are mainly in solid and rigid positioning, manually adjusted to a required neck position. Hence, the braces cannot provide disentangling changes for the home patient. This project attempts to develop an automatic self-balancing cervical brace with a combination of a rigid brace structure and the assistance of an Arduino controller. The prototype new cervical brace was tested for user experience recommendations, and several mechanical design and electronic parts recommendations have been addressed for further improvement. The test also indicates that a proper capacity servo motor and accelerometer are required to maintain the 0˚angle with minimum battery usage for an extended period. This study has contributed to the exploration of new theoretical and practical understanding of cervical brace development, i.e., the integration of automatic control usage parallel with an innovative solution in replacing rigid braces to increase satisfaction among home patients during rehabilitation.