  Many people living with neurological disorders, such as cerebral palsy,
stroke, muscular dystrophy or dystonia experience upper limb impairments
(muscle spasticity, loss of selective motor control, muscle weakness or
tremors) and have difficulty to eat independently. The general goal of this
project is to develop a new device to assist with eating, aimed at stabilizing
the movement of people who have movement disorders. A first iteration of the
device was validated with children living with cerebral palsy and showed
promising results. This validation however pointed out important drawbacks.
This paper presents an iteration of the design which includes a new mechanism
reducing the required arm elevation, improving safety through a compliant
utensil attachment, and improving damping and other static balancing factors.

Robotics