Project Type: Research Organization: Human Engineering Research Lab (HERL) Devices Used: Texas Instruments Sensor TagMSP430 chip on custom PCBAndroid Smartphone Software Used: C | Java Date(s): Jan 2016 - Jun 2018
Physical activity monitoring systems and other wearable devices have exploded in popularity in recent years. Many of these devices track the user's activity by counting the number of steps taken. This works well for able-bodied people but excludes many users who have disabilities and use a wheelchair as their primary means of mobility. With this project we set out to create a system that manual wheelchair users can incorporate into their everyday lives. The immediate goals of this project were to collect data for research purposes to establish a baseline of how much physical activity is typically exerted by manual wheelchair users while performing various tasks. The secondary goal was to provide individual users data on their daily physical activity to promote healthier lifestyles.
My main responsibilty for this project was to develop the embedded firmware for the PAMS device. This included sampling data from a gyroscope and accelerometer to detect the motion of the wheelchair and processing the raw data to quantify the amount of physical activity performed. This data was then stored temporarily in an onboard memory chip before being sent over bluetooth to a smartphone running a custom app. I also was in charge of calibrating each sensor and validating the accuracy of the devices. Additional tasks that I performed to successfully complete this project included creating an Android smartphone app to display the collected data to the user, modeling and 3D printing a protective case to mount the sensor to any wheelchair, and soldering different components to our custom PCB to evaluate different hardware designs.
Address
Phone #
Boston, MA
781 812 8630
joelynch523@gmail.com