Design And Development Of Seated Foot Press Assistive Device For Return To Work Rehabilitation

The rehabilitation process is helped the stroke patients to improve their disability by using the assistive equipment or machine in the rehabilitation center. The seated foot press is one of the machines that used by the stroke patients who had a disability of their leg to improve and maintain the muscle strength. However, during the seated foot press exercise, their muscles will feel weak, fatigue and painful due to the repetitious motion and caused the rapid drop. Therefore, the objectives of this project are to identify the issue of seated foot press machine and the muscle fatigue of rehabilitation patients by observing and conducting a survey in PERKESO Rehabilitation Center (PRC). The total of eight questionnaires was distributed to the patients who have experience using the seated foot press at the gymnasium in order to know their problems. After observing their problems in the PRC, there was no assistive device for seated foot press to help patients assist them during the exercise. Therefore, an assistive device for seated foot press is developed to help the patients. The design specification of this design of assistive device is based on the patient‟s requirement. The proposed design is selected using screening and scoring method based on a few criteria to finalise the best design concept for the supporting device before visualize the design using SolidWork software. The selected design was divided by two parts which are 3D printing insole and fabricated plate system. CES EduPAck software is used to select the best materials for the device and polylactic acid (PLA) material is selected to develop the insole using Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) machine. For the plate system, other manufacturing process is used to fabricate the plate. The process involved were welding, drilling and finishing process. Lastly, in order to analyse the effectiveness of product, a simulated environment testing is conducted at Thor Fitness Gymnasium with and without using the device and a survey of product evaluation is distributed to the respondent in order to evaluate the product. From the result, all the respondents satisfied with the product that helps them to reduce their muscle fatigue and rapid drop.