Improving The Controlling System of A Finger Simulator

Recently, different kinds of small, programmable and less energy consuming circuit boards have been used to run various electronic projects or systems. Additionally these small circuit boards are also valid for controlling the applications of the simulators. The School of Mechanical & Systems Engineering of Newcastle University, currently, is in possession of four pneumatic simulators which was previously used to test finger prostheses. Each rig has conducted in the vicinity of one hundred million cycles of flexion and extension. The aim of this project is to improve the design of controlling the finger simulator by using a programmable circuit board (Arduino Uno Rev3). The project has been divided into three different categories, designing, making and testing. The control simulator will be unmodified to allow back to back benchmark testing. The designing procedure has been separated in several sections as, designing the circuit board, proper wire connection with the simulator and a 25V power supply. Along that, an Arduino IDE (Integrated Development Environment) software has been used to compile some programs related to the micro-controller ATmega328p.