The PC based human interface for arm strength training machine

The establishment of interactive communication between arm strength training machine (ASTM) and the people will make the exercise and rehabilitation therapies become more friendly. This paper presents a friendly human interface for ASTM, in such a way to reduce the occurrence for improper operation of exercise machine. The system hardware consists of a universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter (UART) communication, analog and digital converter (ADC) converter, Personal Computer (PC), and a permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) drive which is basically realized by a microcontroller for simulating the weight stack. The system software for human interface is developed under PC and written in C language. The firmware of motor drive is programming basically on the MPLAB development tool by Microchip technology incorporated. Finally, a prototype of human interface arm strength training machine is realized and demonstrated. The experimental results show the feasibility and fidelity of the complete designed system.