3D-printed programmable bistable mechanisms for customized wearable devices in tremor attenuation

Mohammadi, M, Kouzani, AZ, Bodaghi, M ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0707-944X and Zolfagharian, A, 2025. 3D-printed programmable bistable mechanisms for customized wearable devices in tremor attenuation. Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials, 168: 107006. ISSN 1751-6161

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Abstract

This research proposes a computational framework for designing a compliant bistable mechanism and fabricating it using 3D printing for customized medical applications. The proposed method reduces upper limb tremors, taking advantage of the nonlinear mechanical properties of flexible structures. The model's development and execution on a single platform streamlines integrated inverse design and simulation, simplifying the customization process. A synthetic human arm model, built to imitate a human wrist, was scanned with a light detection and ranging (LiDAR) sensor to customize the 3D model of the bistable structure. Afterwards, the arm model was used to test the bistable mechanism. Automating the inverse design process with a deep neural network (DNN) and evolutionary optimization decides the optimal bistable mechanism configurations for stiffness and vibration attenuation. The pseudo-rigid-body model (PRBM) of the bistable mechanism was developed to train the machine learning (ML) model in the inverse design, making it computationally affordable to find the optimal parameters of bistable structure for a specific mechanical response based on tremor characteristics. Experimental results showing up to 87.11 % reduction in tremor power while weighing only 27 g to reduce vibrations in various situations suggest its use in 4D printing of wearable orthotic devices for Parkinsonian tremors and related diseases.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials
Creators:	Mohammadi, M., Kouzani, A.Z., Bodaghi, M. and Zolfagharian, A.
Publisher:	Elsevier BV
Date:	August 2025
Volume:	168
ISSN:	1751-6161
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1016/j.jmbbm.2025.107006 DOI 2429846 Other
Rights:	© 2025 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Divisions:	Schools > School of Science and Technology
Record created by:	Laura Borcherds
Date Added:	24 Apr 2025 09:12
Last Modified:	24 Apr 2025 09:12
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/53446

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