Exoskeleton Project

To design an upper body exoskeleton which would reduce the chance of repetitive strain injury and provide feedback on the users's posture.

Documentation

http://docs.uabiomed.ca/

Getting started

These instructions will get you a copy of the project up and running on your local machine for development and testing purposes.

Installation

Based on your operating system, follow the guides below to install the Arduino IDE and pySerial followed by cloning this repo to your local system. After this, the Makefile must be edited for each user.

OS Independent Instructions

Clone the exoskeleton repo locally

git clone https://github.com/ualbertabiomed/exoskeleton.git --recursive

Initial Windows and MacOS Instructions

Clone the Arduino-Makefile repo locally

git clone https://github.com/sudar/Arduino-Makefile.git

Based on your operating system, follow the guides below to install the Arduino IDE and pySerial. After this, copy the 'Makefile-OStemplate' that corresponds to your system from setup/ to src/ . Rename it to Makefile and edit it according to your system paths and requirements - this must be done for each user. Makefile is in the .gitignore so you dont have to worry about commiting this file to the repository.

Install Cygwin

• Cygwin is an open source project which provides the functionality of Linux distribution on Windows

1. Download Cygwin 32 or 64-bit version (according to your requirement) from the following page and save it to a known location (ex. the Desktop),

   • https://www.cygwin.com/

2. When a waning window pops up, click Yes.

3. Click Next.

4. Choose 'Install from Internet' option and then click Next.

5. Choose your desired directory by clicking on Browse button. Choose 'All Users (Recommended)' and then click Next.

6. Choose the local package directory where you would like your installation files to be placed (dont delete this folder in the future; its name will be long and weird, mine is http%3a%2f%2fcygwin.mirror.constant.com%2f). Click Next.

7. Choose 'Direct Connection' if you are using Internet with plug and play device. Click Next.

8. Choose any download site preferably "cygwin.mirror.constant.com" and then click Next.

9. In the top left corner of the package manager click the drop down list named view and select the option ‘Category’

10. To install a package you will first find it using the search bar and navigating to the correct category of software. Beside each package there is a column titled ‘new’. In this box if you see the label 'skip' in front of a package then this package is not currently installed. To select a package for installation click the drop down and select the highest version number which is a non-beta release (the latest version will typically be lower in the list). If you see the label 'Keep', leave as it is - this means that there is a current version of this package already installed. In the following instructions you will see many packages returned by your search results. It is very important that you select the packages whose names exactly match what is listed below. Install the latest (non-beta versions) of the following minimal packages for Cygwin:

    • gcc-core: GNU Compiler Collection (C,OpenMP) - To select this package, type 'gcc-core' in search bar and hit Enter. Expand 'Devel'.

    • make: The GNU version of the 'make' utility - Again type 'make' in the search bar and hit Enter. Again expand 'Devel' by clicking corresponding + button.

    • vim: Vi Improved - enhanced vi editor - Do the same but this time search vim and it should be in 'Editors' category.

    • Perl: Perl programming language interpreter - Search perl and expand the interpreters category.

    • Python2: Python programming language interpreter - Search python and expand the interpreters category.

11. Click Next.

12. Review the changes and then click Next.

13. Wait for the download and installation to finish

14. Keep default check boxes of placing an icon on the Desktop (this is important because you use this shortcut to open the cygwin terminal) and then click Finish.

15. Move the cygwin setup application that you downloaded in step 1 to the cygwin installation folder from step 5. If you ever need to install a new package, update a package, or remove a package, you simply rerun this ‘setup’ tool (it doesnt actually reinstall anything at this point it just updates files).

Install pySerial

1. Open the cygwin terminal using the shortcut that was placed on your desktop during installation.
2. Enter the following command to install pip (a python package installer) by copying and pasting:
   • /usr/bin/python2 -m ensurepip
3. Now enter the following to use pip to install the pySerial python package:
   • pip install pyserial

Install PuTTY

1. Follow this guide to install:
   • https://www.ssh.com/ssh/putty/windows/install
2. Open PuTTY. Create a new saved session for the com4 serial port:
3. In the textbox under ‘Saved Sessions’ type a name to save the settings we are about to set under (example scom4).
4. Click the ‘Serial’ radio dial above.
5. In the ‘Serial line’ textbox, which should have just appeared, type ‘COM4’ and set speed to 9600.
6. On the left hand side in the categories pane, under Session, click logging.
7. Click the radio dials “All session output” and “Always overwrite it”.
8. Optionally click browse and choose where you want serial output logs to be saved and under what name (keeping the default installation to be in your PuTTY installation directory with the name putty.log is fine).
9. On the left hand side in the categories pane, click Session.
10. Click the save button on the right hand side.

Clone exoskeleton repo

Clone the exoskeleton repository to your computer (see other section…)

Possible issues

• Anti-virus blocks cygwin bash commands (mkdir, rm, cd , etc). Permission denied errors can be fixed if the user disables anti-virus for cygwin.
• If you get an error message when performing a make upload command (saying something about being unable to configure the port) then try opening the Arduino IDE and then compile and upload a blank sketch (with just an empty setup and loop) before you try ‘make upload’ again. Something about uploading a sketch using the Arduino IDE seems to help windows find the port in the future...

MacOS

Pre - requisites: basic knowledge of terminal and navigating macOS file system

1. Install Arduino IDE

• Install - Choose MacOS X
• Installation Guide for MacOS X here

2. Install MacPorts

• Install - Download the correct package installer based on MacOS version - To check MacOS version, click on the "Apple" on the top left and then "About this Mac"

3. Install pySerial

• In the terminal:

sudo port install py27-serial

3. Clone exoskeleton repo

git clone https://github.com/ualbertabiomed/exoskeleton.git

4. Configure the Makefile

• Uncomment only the MacOS section

Linux

Pre-requisites:

• Basic knowledge of bash terminal and navigating Linux file system
• Sudo privileges

1. Clone exoskeleton repo

git clone https://github.com/ualbertabiomed/exoskeleton.git
cd exoskeleton

2. Run install script

sudo chmod +x setup/install-linux.sh
sudo ./setup/install-linux.sh

Troubleshooting

-mmcu= error. Solution: define BOARD_TAG and BOARD_SUB

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Running the tests

Explain how to run the automated tests for this system. Break down into end to end tests: Explain what thest tests test and why. .

License

This project is licensed under the MIT license .

Acknowledgements

Hat tip to anyone whose code was used, inspiration, references, etc.

Legacy

The legacy code folder was removed as of commit a36a24df2f4bcaecfa03a197b8b9ec66118a99ba