Development and validation of a multi-degree of freedom dynamic platform for hand tremor suppression device design

Hand tremor is a common motor symptom in Parkinson's disease and essential tremor, and it can impair daily hand activities. Non-invasive mechanical suppression devices provide an engineering-based approach for tremor attenuation, but their validation requires a repeatable, adjustable, and quantitative testing platform. Existing testing methods are often limited in repeatability, parameter adjustability, and multi-DOF response evaluation. To address these limitations, this thesis develops a 3-DOF hand tremor simulation platform. The platform was designed based on hand-level dynamic parameters and tremor characteristics reported in the literature. Rather than reproducing the full anatomical or neuromuscular complexity of the human hand, it represents hand tremor as a controllable mechanical vibration problem. The platform mainly simulates translational hand motion associated with wrist flexion/extension and rotational motion associated with forearm pronation/ supination. Adjustable parameters were incorporated so that excitation frequency, response amplitude, and rotational coupling response could be varied to represent different hand tremor conditions. Multiple sensors were used to measure translational and rotational responses, and cross-validation after calibration showed agreement above 95\%, confirming measurement accuracy. A previously studied T-beam absorber was then used as a benchmark device to verify the experimental testing capability of the platform. Over the 4--7 Hz test range, the measured suppression trend was consistent with previously reported theoretical and experimental results for the T-beam absorber. These results show that the platform can evaluate mechanical tremor-suppression devices through before-and-after response comparison and support their early-stage design.