Bio-Inspired Mechanical Spoon Concept: Resonance Avoidance, Structural, and Thermal Analysis

Hand tremors make simple tasks such as eating a significant problem for the people suffering from essential tremors and Parkinson’s disease trying to manage their everyday activities. Electronic stabilising spoons are available for commercial purchase, however they tend to be expensive and inconvenient to use and requires constant charging. This paper presents a mechanical bio-inspired spoon as one of the solutions to this problem, with data from Finite Elements Analysis (FEA) to validate. We incorporated biomimetic features in the design. The bowl of the spoon is designed with a protective layer to reduce the effects of tremors, that mimics a silkworm cocoon, while the handle implements bamboo-like segmented joints for greater durability. Additionally, the neck area uses an orthogonal spring structure that is inspired by the shock-absorbing hyoid bone in a woodpecker’s skull. The design was modelled in SolidWorks 2026 student edition and was analyzed for static structural, modal frequency, and thermal analysis. The simulation results show that the first natural frequency is 58.52 Hz, which is far above the usual frequency range of hand tremor (4 to 12 Hz). This large gap means that the spoon is kept away from resonance, so the tremor cannot be amplified. A separate analytical calculation was done where it is shown that, because the natural frequency sits so far above the tremor band, the spoon behaves like a rigid body and follows the hand, and it does not actually isolate the tremor on its own. The maximum stress of 13.8 MPa under a 1 N load is much lower than the yield strength of AISI 304 stainless steel (207 MPa) and the factor of safety is calculated as approximately 15. The thermal study shows that there is a good heat isolation between the bowl and the handle. The final design weighs 87.89 grams, which is within a comfortable weight limit.