Long story short, I am part of a team of undergraduate Kinesiology students (i.e., health science students w/o computer science or coding experience) working to create an NMES device from scratch to mitigate muscle loss in the quadriceps/thighs during long term space flight. The device is being made from scratch for the purpose of a design challenge (TSGC). We have selected the Adafruit ESP32 Feather as our microcontroller, but we are also open to using other boards. We have a list of several questions that we are looking into:
Is the ESP32 a good microcontroller for this project? We are looking into using a direct current (as used by devices physical therapist use) through electrodes to stimulate muscles to contract forcefully. If you have other suggestions for boards, please list them
What are all of the components will we need to create the circuit? Based on limited research, we decided we needed the controller, a dc-dc converter, capacitors, diodes, and transistors. If these are the only things we need, how should we go about organizing the circuit?
How should we go about building the code for this project in Arduino? What is the necessary vocabulary that we need to include? I have spent this past month learning some of the basics of Arduino IDE and can do some very simple things such as messing around with LEDs, DC motors, & buttons, and reading the serial monitor with an air pressure sensor (project from a former year), but I am by no means an expert.
If you need any additional information, please ask. If you have any suggestion for tutorials or guides, please list them. Thank you everyone who helps us out!
Decide on and clearly describe the characteristics of the electrical signal that you intend to generate, the electrical characteristics of the intended load (the possible human subject), and especially, all of the safety considerations, features and special exemptions from regulations that will or may be required for the device.
In most countries, all medical devices and electrical appliances intended to be used with human subjects are under strict government regulation, inspection and control. Furthermore, most manufacturers do not authorize their devices to be used for such purposes without special permission and/or exemptions.
So how are you going to do this without any idea of what you are doing?
This sounds somewhat of a backwards way of going about things. Do you want to learn these skills?
Or do you want us to write code and do the design for you?
Note we are not a design, code writing forum. We will help you get it right or correct what you have made.
We are still currently looking into what we need to do for the electrical signal. We aren't 100% sure the voltage, frequency, or intensity of the stimulation device quite yet as we are very early in the process. We would love suggestions if you have any!
For the purpose of the competition we don't need to worry about any type of regulations as this won't be the basis for any future products or anything of the sort. The idea of the competition it more about proof of concept with conducting a literature review, compiling research in a digestible manner, and then presenting this data along side a finish device that can be used (hopefully). Safety is our first and foremost concern for testing though, so we won't be experimenting without plenty of considerations first.
I also made an edit in the original post to ensure we are doing NMES on the quadriceps/thighs specifically if that makes any difference.
We are attempting to build and code the device ourselves and we are more just looking for general guidance if anyone who sees this has any type of experience or suggestions they can provide. I am not planning on learning how to code for a profession, but I am learning as much as I can for the purpose of this project.
The main purpose of the post is to get feedback from people that have any experience early in the process while also reaching out to other experts in the field regarding designing NMES devices to see what we can accomplish ourselves. We already have several meetings set up for the future, we just thought this might be another way to get feedback early on. As we learn more, I am planning on posting updates with more specific information about what we are doing/thinking
My apologies if this isn't the most organized post as this is very new territory for the team. Any and all feedback is appreciated!