Congratulations to our MAE student team on being selected as the winner of the IMechE Hong Kong Branch Best Student Design Award 2025/26 (the Award)! This achievement highlights the team’s excellence in mechanical engineering innovation and human-centered design.
Organized by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers Hong Kong Branch, the Award aims to recognize contributions to the mechanical industry from student design projects and to acknowledge the performance of outstanding mechanical engineering students.
The Award recognizes a design project that has the potential to influence the mechanical engineering industry, shows technical excellence in the field, demonstrates innovation and creativity, and possesses commercial viability. Only one award is given to each institution.
Awardees
WONG Hung Wa Helen (Final Year, EEEN Programme)
CHAN Yin Wai (Final Year, MAEG Programme)
MO Chi Wing (Year 2, MAEG Programme)
Project Title: HaptEX: Haptic EXosupport for fatigue-free mechanical engineering work
Project Description:
HaptEX is a single-degree-of-freedom, cable-driven wearable exosupport system created to help reduce upper-limb muscle fatigue and musculoskeletal disorders during prolonged manual tasks. These kinds of demanding activities – such as holding tools overhead, repetitive arm movements, or sustained positioning – are very common in construction, maintenance, and manufacturing. While existing passive exosuits can ease static loads, they don’t respond to how the user actually behaves. Many active systems, on the other hand, deliver constant non-personalized feedback, which often causes users to get used to it and eventually stop using the device.
HaptEX tackles these issues by combining three key elements in one smart closed-loop system: mechanical load support, real-time pressure sensing at the skin interface, and adaptive anti-habituation haptic feedback.
The system uses a distal MPU6050 inertial measurement unit (IMU) sampling at 100 Hz, achieving ±2° posture tracking accuracy through sensor fusion. It also incorporates thin-film pressure sensors embedded in the forearm cuff to monitor how force is being transferred and distributed. A stepper motor with a planetary gearbox delivers up to 12 Nm of assistive torque through Bowden cables, while keeping the weight on the shoulder under 350 g.
HaptEX operates in three modes: passive torque support for static holding tasks, corrective assistance that adjusts based on posture deviation, and hierarchical haptic guidance delivered via a linear resonant actuator (LRA). After a quick two-minute calibration session that tailors the system to each user, the haptic feedback intelligently escalates – using mild pulses for small deviations, intermittent patterns for medium ones, and stronger sustained alerts for large errors. Randomized intervals between pulses (0.5–2.5 seconds) help prevent the user from becoming desensitized.
Running on an 84 MHz microcontroller at 50 Hz closed-loop control, the system even reduces mechanical assistance when it detects the user correcting their own posture, respecting their natural movement while still providing ergonomic support. With an impressively low average power consumption of just 4.5 W, it can easily last a full eight-hour workday.
The design sketch
Haptic feedback system prototype
Haptic feedback prototype: power supply
MO Chi Wing (left) and CHAN Yin Wai (right) received the IMechE Hong Kong Branch Best Student Design Award 2025/26 at the Branch AGM and Annual Dinner 2026.