Preliminary design of a device to assist handwriting in children with movement disorders

This paper presents the development of a new passive assistive handwriting device, which aims to stabilize the motion of people living with movement disorders. Many people living with conditions such as cerebral palsy, stroke, muscular dystrophy or dystonia experience upper limbs impairments (muscle spasticity, unselective motor control, muscle weakness or tremors) and are unable to write or draw on their own. The proposed device is designed to be fixed on a table. A pen is attached to the device using a pen holder, which maintains the pen in a fixed orientation. The user interacts with the device using a handle while mechanical dampers and inertia contribute to the stabilization of the user's movements. The overall mechanical design of the device is first presented, followed by the design of the pen holder mechanism.