Final Year Pain [edited]

I just had lunch in the comfort of my room.... starting to feel a lil sleepy from the food. I'm also tired from having attended 2/3 of my crappy HRM lecture ... such a waste of time. The new lecturer isn't really engaging like the previous one and spent 1 hr introducing himself to the class today. I didn't really listen to him though, and spent much of the lecture doing the necessary calculations for a conveyor belt system for my 4011, Mechanical System Design and Analysis project.... another tedious project which my class unfortunately have to do a comparatively harder topic compared to the rest of the cohort.

Think I should just take a break from doing any school work and blog a lil (before i finish downloading my conveyor belt catalog.)

Lets talk about FYP... one of the most sians part of Year 4.

Being year 4, one of integral part of a student's life revolves around his Final Year Project ... aka Final Year Pain... Think most people are still unclear of what I'm doing for my FYP and what i have done in these 2 months... so here's a brief intro....

FYP : Project Iron-Man Legs.

The main objective for my FYP is to design and develop this Biomechanical device that would

enable my patient, a person with a history of spinal cord injury to stand and walk about in the comfort of his home. He is wheelchair bound and most of his leg muscles have atrophied so he doesn't have enough strength to stand on his own. He also have some problems with his nervous system so he can't really feel on one leg. Therefore, for my project, we have to come up with this leg orthosis that can firstly help him stand on his own, next help him lift his legs and in that motion help to move.

For this project also, i have a partner who's actually doing more into the designing whereas i will do the programming.. However, due to the intricate system that we are developing we can't really separate the workload that clearly... I am however, stressed up with the current progress because though i'm doing the programming, we are only able to being work on it only now.. half way through semester 1...

Mind you, the deadline that my professor set for my project is by this December where we will send our devices for fabrication and wait for it to return.

Well, technically it would look something like this... or thats what we visualize how it would be ...

(you can read this up on the internet... http://www.cyberdyne.jp/English/robotsuithal/index.html)

Cyberdyne's HAL suit

though i personally wished it could be this instead...(wishful thinking)

So far, we haven't started on the leg automation part but more of the walking frame and harness that would help our patient stand straight... although its not really the main part of the working mechanism however, if he can't stand properly how is he going to walk at the first place? So I've been working with my friend on the unimportant but necessary aspects. My partner focusing on the frame whereas I come up with the body support harness and a pair of customized shorts to help him stand straight. and secure him firmly to the frame.

The troublesome part of this is that we must first think of probably come out with technical calculations and preliminary drawings of our designs, clear our designs with our professor, then draw out the technical drawings, consult the manufacturer and then quickly send for fabrication.. So, if you take your time for one part of this process.. it snowballs and your whole progress will delay....

Completed stuff... the harness and special shorts ...

[talking about this harness.. i was damn bloody fed up with the vendor the other day when i collected it after my SAVA sprints on Saturday.... When i called up the vendor on Wednesday.. the vendor told me that he should be done in 2 days' time, so Friday evening i should be able to come collect... when i got there by Saturday evening, he was still rushing the harnesses and shorts.. mutter.. that i can still forgive since such stuff are customized and hand made so it's requires some 'kungfu' by the shop vendor.. nvm. checking through the 3 items i got him to fabricate, one of the harness for my phd mentor was done wrongly... looking at it.. i was a lil unhappy so i told him that i would be getting my mentor to come down and look at it first before paying him... in the end.. i was ticked off by the vendor that i was delaying his payment and he refuses to keep amending my stuff without paying him...

WTH ... was what i was thinking... you didnt do a good job and u expect me to pay you? basket...

i was damn pissed to be ticked off .. and isn't it the right of a customer to only pay after the job has been completed? what right do you have to demand it then.. you already defaulted on the deadline and you didnt deliver your goods properly, shouldn't you be apologetic even? bloody ass.

I was furious but in order not to ruin the business relation between the research team and this shop vendor, i reluctantly paid him the 700 dollars in my wallet which i withdrew from my bank account... already ready to pay the vendor so long he did his job.. I think i should be the first IA student to have already paid 1.2K dollars for my FYP alone.. and have started to claim money for it. ]

The new frame prototype for testing purposes...

Me and Yunli.. my fyp partner... posing with Mark 1 and Mark 2 of our frame prototype.

now I am waiting for my metal holder for the harness sent for fabrication to arrive and also come up with other prototypes such as for the feet, and the leg to test our walking mechanism.

Metal harness holder

much have been done, but a whole lot more awaits me... i only hope things will go smoothly for me for all my different modules

i long for time to spend with my neglected one...