Sensing and analysis of angular vibrations of tremor

Advisors: Donald Zinger.Committee members: Abhijith Gupta; Peng-Yung Woo.Tremor is defined as the unintentional involuntary muscle movements involving rhythmic oscillations of any part of body like legs, hands, arms and limbs. This thesis deals with the most common tremor that occurs in hands. Tremor is not life threatening but greatly affects quality of life. The main purpose of this research is to identify a feedback control technique for the suppression of Essential Tremor. Tremor can be defined as the nonlinear and non stationary phenomenon which is the most common movement disorder affecting more than 4% of elderly people. In this research, a tremor is simulated using a stepper motor and is being sensed using a gyroscope. The Arduino UNO board is used to obtain the tremor data that is being sensed by a gyroscope. Designing and implementing the controller based on the obtained tremor characteristics is the central part of the research. The simulation results are analyzed in the National Instruments LABVIEW software and another stepper motor is used to control the tremor. The long term results are expected to lead toward a suppressed tremor without disturbing the voluntary motion of the hand.M.S. (Master of Science