Modeling and experimental study of a hand tremor suppression system

Hand tremor is one of the most prevalent movement disorders. Nowadays, methods for suppressing the hand tremor, with fewer side effects, are interesting for researchers. In this study, an electro-mechanical device is designed to attenuate hand tremor of the Parkinson and the Essential tremor patients. This device is used as a spoon, which can suppress hand tremor in frequency range of 3-12 Hz. In this spoon, the piezoelectric devices are used as vibration sensor, energy harvester and vibration suppressor. To study application of the system, the governing electromechanical equations of motion are obtained and validated by experiment. Then to achieve best performance of the tremor suppressor, its parameters are justified concerning the tremor frequency. Furthermore, the electrical energy, which is harvested by the piezoelectric devices, is used to supply needed energy of electrical components of the device. Finally, it is shown that the designed spoon can effectively decrease the hand tremor and for frequency range of 3-12 Hz, this device is able to attenuate the tremor more than 80% during eating.