Ashley Lowber
Mechanical Engineering Portfolio
Posture Flex
Prototyping • Mechatronics • Finite Element Analysis • Soft Robotics Fabrication •
Kinesiology • Arduino IDE

Context: Our team of three was tasked with implementing a soft robotic system for our final class
project, with potential real-world application value.
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Solution: For our project, we imagined how we
mightimplement soft sensors with the
mapping of human movement. Thus, we
designed a prototype system which takes
in resistance readings from a carbon grease
sensor attached to the user (this type of
sensor experiences changes in resistance
related to the amount of strain it undergoes),
converts this to a proportional amount of
rotational displacement for our stepper motor
shaft within our pneumatic pump, and thus
results in the movement of a soft robotic
actuator. With this design, the motion of the
user's shoulders in a hunched vs. straight-back
position is reflected in the bending of the actuator.
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My role: Biomechanics research, concept generation, fabrication plan, FEA analysis, CAD, system
assembly


