Mobility impairments corresponding to these attributable to cerebral palsy make it laborious for folks to carry out even easy duties like consuming a sip of water.
Gary Lynn, a Houstonian dwelling with the situation, turned to Rice College’s Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen (OEDK) for assist making the thought of an assistive-drinking system a actuality. Rice undergraduate engineering college students Thomas Kutcher and Rafe Neathery rose to the problem, and the result’s RoboCup—a robotic system that permits folks with restricted mobility to remain hydrated with out assist.
“We needed to make it attainable for folks with cerebral palsy or comparable mobility challenges to drink water autonomously fairly than needing to depend on caregiver help,” stated Kutcher, who’s a bioengineering main. “The system is designed for wheelchair customers who might need bother holding a cup, and our hope is that it’ll grant customers better freedom.”
Anybody with entry to a 3D printer can assemble their very own RoboCup by downloading the directions, which can be found without cost at workforce RoboCup’s OEDK web site. Kutcher and Neathery weighed questions of mental property and entrepreneurship of their effort to make sure the results of their work could be helpful and accessible to those that want it. In the long run, they determined to make RoboCup freely obtainable.
RoboCup will be mounted on customers’ wheelchairs and customised to finest serve their mobility wants. The battery-powered system is activated both by way of a proximity sensor or a button, relying on customers’ wants or preferences.
“We requested professionals working with individuals who have wants just like Gary’s about what we may do to enhance the system,” Kutcher stated. “They actually preferred our undertaking and confirmed its potential, however in addition they identified that to be able to attain as many individuals as attainable, we would have liked to include extra choices for constructing the system, corresponding to various kinds of sensors, valves and mechanisms for mounting the system on totally different wheelchair sorts.”
Making the system extra accessible additionally meant simplifying it. The workforce eliminated a number of the extra sophisticated or costly elements and located options for customized elements that required particular tools to be manufactured.
“It was a problem strolling that skinny line between simplifying the system and sacrificing performance or robustness,” stated Neathery, who’s a mechanical engineering main. “We needed to maintain it working effectively whereas nonetheless making it easier and cheaper. Balancing all these concerns was actually difficult, however we did get to some extent the place it is now quite a bit simpler to 3D print and assemble the system utilizing easy, readily accessible instruments.”
The scholars labored carefully with Lynn to optimize the design, which went by a number of iterations. An preliminary prototype featured a camelback however was scrapped for the mounted cup-and-straw model, which Lynn stated seemed higher and interfered much less with locomotion.
“The present design was extra interesting to Gary, and we predict it will be extra interesting to different customers as effectively,” Neathery stated.
“This workforce—our college students and Gary—have been so persistent and keen to maintain modifying the design till they acquired a workable system,” stated Maria Oden, a professor of bioengineering, OEDK director, co-director of the Rice 360° Institute for International Well being and the workforce’s mentor. “Our engineers have been keen to take laborious suggestions from Gary when the system didn’t work in addition to we hoped and hold at it till they acquired a design that’s a lot improved. As well as, they needed to make it possible for the design was accessible to those that needed to make one.”
Each Gary and his mom Andrea Lynn expressed their hope that the undertaking brings consideration to the struggles of individuals dwelling with disabilities who’ve a tough time with one thing as simple as consuming water.
“This cup will give independence to folks with restricted mobility of their arms,” Gary Lynn stated. “Getting to do that little process by themselves will improve the boldness of the individual utilizing the system.”
Rice College
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Robotic cup helps wheelchair-bound customers keep hydrated (2023, October 6)
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