Design of Weight Distribution Monitoring System Biomedical Engineering Design 200/300 Fall 2012

Ms. Carol Rohl is a hemiplegic woman who suffered a thalamic bleed in 2004. Our team has been approached to assist in her rehabilitation. Currently, she does not know when her stance is balanced due to a lack of sensory feedback on the left side of her body. She would like a portable weight distribution monitoring system that she can use to train herself to recognize an even weight distribution. The three concepts we developed to accomplish this are using a Wii Balance Board, a mechanical balance, and a Wheatstone bridge balance. The use of a decision matrix led to the selection of the Wheatstone bridge balance as the best design. There is still work to be done over the remainder of the semester, including fabricating the Wheatstone bridge and its casing as well as developing a calibration method for the FSRs. We’ll then implement a microcontroller and a display as well as final calibrations. By the end of the semester, we intend to have fabricated a functioning prototype of the Wheatstone bridge balance device that our client can use to aid her in balance rehabilitation.