The project development consists of 9 stages
1-Brainstorming
We made a list of different ideas that we thought were applicable. Many factors were considered in making the list. The group of people who will benefit from the product, advantages of proposed product over related works, the components and the circuit power consumption and many other factors. Among 3 proposed ideas we chose Smart Knee Cap which can help athletes and healthy, normal people to avoid knee injury and it is also beneficial for those who suffer from knee diseases and are prescribed to exercise regularly at home. Our main motivation was helping people who suffer from chondromalacia.
Chondromalacia is a common knee disease which is mainly caused by inappropriate movement of the knee while exercising. Wrong knee angle imposes pressure on the knee and causes degeneration of the cartilage. With the help of Smart Knee Cap young athletes can avoid knee injuries.
2- preparation stage
Different exercises require different knee angles. Categorization of exercises and developing software regarding different knee angles require knowledge about exercises and destructive consequences of executing exercises wrongly. We arranged a meeting with a gym trainer and a physiotherapist to acquire essential information.
3-List of components
After acquiring essential knowledge for project, further studies were made about components which could be used in circuit. The most important component was sensor. There are many factors in choosing an appropriate sensor which could serve project's goal. Proposed sensors were pressure, ultrasonic and flex sensors. Ultrasound sensors require large energy consumption and power saving is the most important factor while choosing components. Factors in choosing an appropriate sensor which serves our project were speed, accuracy, price and range of the measured angles. Flex sensor was the best option since they are affordably priced, they can be used for any application which requires measurement of repetitive bending and they can measure wide range of angles and knee movements. After choosing right sensor we had to decide about possible feedbacks. We decided to provide auditory and visual feedback. for this purpose we used one buzzer which alarms the user when the knee angle is not in the defined range, a green LED which is on when user is doing exercise correctly and a red LED which is on if the user's knee angle is not correct. Controller unit that we chose is Arduino Uno because it can be easily programmed and does not need very profound knowledge in programming.
4-Programming
Arduino can be easily programmed. After receiving the components first stage was writing the codes and programming the controller. Different exercises require different knee angles, however in our project we defined angle between 80 to 90 degree which is the required angle while doing squats and lunge. In future work user will have more options to choose between different angles.
5-Circuit implementation on breadboard
In the next stage we initially implemented the circuit on the breadboard to make sure that the circuit is working properly.
6-Designing PCB
In the next stage we initially designed our PCB in KICAD and the final PCB was made by 3D printer.
7-Final implementation
The next stage included soldering the components on the PCB and connect the final circuit to Arduino Uno.
9-Designing circuit box
The last stage was designing an appropriate box for circuit to avoid any probable damage to circuit and make it last longer. Design of the circuit box was done with the help of TINKERCAD.
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