Squat Sole is a state-of-the-art training kit for those who seek an injury free work out. as we all know, the foundation of the body is the foot, with every step we take whether in a work out or day t day activities, the correct motion of the human body begins with the how you step on the foot.
I believe such knowledge will require a huge campaign to create awareness of where or how you should step while working out but with the help of the technology these days, we can tackle this issue and solve it easily with the Squat Sole.
In Squat Sole, we are creating an external shoe sole that you can put on any shoe and senses where exactly you are stepping on your foot. The concept is very simple and straight forward the Squat soles will indicate if your squat pressure you apply is good enough or not which will prevent any injury in the future. It could be further developed by connecting the shoe through an application that shows the progress of your squat step whether in the middle of the foot , on the toe or at the heal which is the recommended location.
I have not found a similar concept that specializes in squat and could be developed further into a training aid, but there are some shoe soles that were used to count how many steps the person has taken or how long the walk is with a GPS connection through an application
the list below of the material that we listed out with the local instructors to provide me with for the final project:
ATT 45
Pressure sensor
Vibration motor – trial-1
LED and Buzzer – trial-2
NPN transistor
4.7 Capacitors
10K Resistors, 2 units
1K Resistors, 1 unit
Cr2032 battery holder
Cr2-32 battery
5V regulator 1117
Stabilizing caps
the concept of the PCB board here is to have 2 batteries of 3 volts each which results in 6 total volts to be converted into 5 volts through the voltage regulator. Then i added 2 capacitors to stabilize the connections.
most of the material and components are available in the lab we are working in Kuwait-Fab-Lab and these components were provided already to the lab beforehand. Moreover, I had to look in the net for the following items and make sure I place the order on-line through his web site www.sparkfun.com. the components are:
1- Cr2032 battery holder
2- Cr2-32 battery
the cost at this stage is not very clear to me since the items that will be ordered online will not cost more that 1.5 dollars each. Here is an estimation cost of the list mentioned earlier:
Attiny $0.50
Capacitor $0.50
Pressure sensor $20.0
Vibration motor $5.00
LED & Buzzer $3.50
NPN transistor $0.5
Resistors $0.50
Cr2032 battery holder $1.50
Cr2-32 battery $2.00
5V regulator $1.50
Stabilizing caps $3.50
CNC wooden boards estimation $8.00
total estimated cost = $47.00 (will be updated as we test it next week)
The prices above are checked across market prices in Kuwait and this website www.sparkfun.com. Please NOTE that halfof the cost comes from the shipping cost
The plan is to create the following:
1- PCB Board
2- External Shoe Sole
3- Application (if possible)
CNC Cutting Machine (to design the mold)
Molding and casting (to design the PCB smooth cast to avoid any sharp edges in the PCB) as a trial
Milling
1) Planning
Planning stage is the stage of this week's report. list the material required , the process needed and the cost estimate will help a lot in defining the direction of the running the final project successfully in the upcoming weeks.
2) Design
onshape design software will be used to establish the first lookahead of the intended design to have a feeling of how the components would merge into each other especially at the very low thickness.
anther design is required which is the PCB board design for the sole. the design software used will be eagle cad and then will be converted into the milling machine. 2 boards designs will be provided. One should be for the vibrator motor and another design to include both the buzzer and the LED light just to see and feel which one is more efficient.
3) Execution
First execution will be the PCB board in the milling machine. another execution is the using the 3D printer for the mold. The last execution is the CNC machine and the molding and casting (if the 3D printer is not working well due to low quality of the printer).
The end of this stage, a testing of trial and error is required to check each step along the way.
1) The size and the depth of the PCB board is the first challenge
2) The sharp edges of the PCB and how it could be smoothen through the mold and cast concept
3) how the vibrating sensor would work effectively
1) Planning Stage: May 28th to Jun 1st 2017
2) Design Stage: June 4th to June 8th 2017
3) Execution Stage: June 11th to Jun 15th 2017
4) Testing Stage: June 18th to Jun 21st 2017
1) The evaluation should be based on the practicality of the project and how flexible it is to be used in the long run.
2) Another point to be evaluated is weight of the sole once its completed
3) The Final point here is the level of vibration at the sole and if its enough for the person to feel it or not.