My project started with an idea. I wanted to create a device to help people in need, and soft robotics seemed to be perfect for this. With its flexibility, soft robotics has the potential to do anything, and so I wanted to pair it with sensors. With the power of sensors, I can measure the temperature, pressure, and flex angle of whatever my soft robot touches. Using these two technologies, I came up with the idea to make a device to help people with neuropathy have functional hands again.
Clinical neuropathy is a condition that can occur with diabetes, which affects 29.1 million people in the US alone. It causes the patient to have severely decreased feeling in the hands and feet, which can be dangerous for the patient. For example, someone with this condition could be holding a very hot pan, but not feel a thing, burning their skin very badly. A gripper like this would fix this problem by it being able to touch something hot or under a lot of pressure before the human hand, almost like a safety or extra hand for the user.
This idea is relatively simple to make too. A soft robot gripper is fairly simple to make with the right mold, and sensors can be made using an Arduino kit. The creation of the prototype will be outlined in the next section.
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