After the independent research project, Mass Academy works on an assistive technology project in groups of 4-5. The assistive technology project is a project where groups design and create a device to meet the needs of a client. My group, Team Circuit du Soleil consists of Grace Qiu (CEO), Ila Chakravarthy (CIO), Andrew Kalashnikov (CTO), and Aansh Patel (CMO).
People with moderate or severe motor impairments from Cerebral palsy find tasks like brushing their teeth without assistance from a personal care taker challenging. This can threaten their oral health as they are not able to take care of their teeth on their own which could lead to many other health complications.
Our group aims to create a toothbrush that is able to aid someone with Cerebral palsy properly brush their teeth.
Our approach involved creating a retainer shaped casing that would move a brush head around the teeth. The brush head would be pulled by a belt using gears and would move side to side to brush the teeth of the user.
*credit to Grace for drawing these images.
As we began making the device, we experimented with the motor settings. The following image shows a wiring diagram that utilizes an Arduino UNO, a DRV8825 Motor Driver, and a NEMA 17 stepper motor. We also attached a screen module as well as buttons in order to customize the direction and speed of the motor. The screen displays the delay between each step of the motor (higher delay means slower spin) in microseconds. Two of the buttons adjust the delay while the other buttons tell the motor which way to spin.
The following image is our prototype. The device uses a stepper motor to spin a gear, which makes that gear rotate a partially cut TPU gear. The material of the partially cut gear is very malleable, which allows it to change its shape as it runs along the casing. The partially cut gear moves three brush heads; each brush head is a three-sided brush, ensuring that the device will cover 3 faces of the teeth.
