Project Information

Customer Information

Our collaborator, Dr. Snyder (see "affiliations" tab), found a woman in Kenya who suffered from polio as a child.  As a result, the tendons in her lower calf muscles were surgically cut.  Thus, she cannot use her lower legs.  She wants a device to take her from her house to the local market to sell vegetables and thus earn a living.  Currently, she relies on others to take her to market.  Our device will enable her to be self reliant in her agriculture business.  

Design Objectives

Mission Statement
Product Description	·         Mobility device for traveling to market with vegetables on a flat, dirt road
Benefit Proposition	·         Allows our customer to travel to market with vegetables independently ·         Allows our customer efficient and easy mobility despite of her lower leg paralysis
Key Business Goals	·         Capable of being adjusted to make device more universal ·         Enable locals to produce devices of a similar quality
Primary Market	·         A 26 year old woman in Kenya who has paralysis below the knee probably due to a polio related surgery as a child.  ·         Other individuals with lower limb disabilities residing in low income/rural areas.
Secondary Markets	·         Manufacturers in low income/rural areas
Assumptions and Constraints	·         Durable, made of local materials, easy to repair, low cost, and ergonomic ·         Capstone course end date in May 2012
Stakeholders	·         Rachel Gin, Jenna Lynne, and Loc Pham (designers) ·         Dr. Buneo, Dr. Jan Snyder—Sustainable Resources ltd. (mentors) ·         Our individual customer in Kenya and potentially people with similar disabilities in similar areas ·         Dr. Pizziconi, Dr. LaBelle, capstone teaching assistants, and design class/design review group

Customer Needs:

The group went through a very thorough process to determine the customer needs, which included brainstorming in addition to communication with the actual customer.  The customer needs include weather protection, durable, easy to employ and enter/exit, comfortable operation, safe to use, made of local materials, easy to repair and/or build in Kenya, shipment to Kenya meets legal standards, can be made by the end of the spring semester and within budget, lightweight and reasonable size, effective vantage point, overall secure components during use, and effective steering and braking.  

Final Product Design

*Note:  The baskets [Hauck], wheels [Stein], seat [Iskender], handlebars [Sherwill], locomoteif [keereweer], chain [valja], bicycle fork and headset [Izmailov], and manikin [Van Ruy] are from grabcad.com.  The rest was designed by the design team (mainly by Jenna).

Image 1 and 2:  Solidworks prototype.  

Image 3--5:  A motor was created in Solidworks, and this created a "video" of the operation mechanism.  These images show screen captures of that video, which demonstrate how the user will use the device.  

Engineering Specifications:  

Metric	Target Product Specification
Degrees of water drop with frame under a microscope	110ᵒ water drop angle OR equiv. for hydrophobicity
Total number of brakes	2
Minimum lifetime	6 years
Frame Materials	bamboo, hemp fiber, epoxy
Maximal force required to brake	40 N
Volume of basket	1.14 m^3
Measurements of seating	45W, 42L, 56H, 5T [cm]
Number of gears	1
Total mass	<40 kg
Operation force	98 N rolling
Ease of entering/exiting	8/10 ; 1=hard, 10 = easy
Size of blind spot	minimal (ᵒ)
Ease to selling at market	9/10 ; 1=hard, 10=easy
Ease of steering	9/10 ; 1=hard, 10=easy
Rank of ease to repair	6/10 ; 1=hard, 10=easy
# joint coatings	2

Works Cited:  

1)      C, Vince. "Milk Crate Tackle and Storage Box." Striper Fishing Online. Web. 30 Jan. 2012. <http://www.stripersonline.com/t/527284/milk-crate-tackle-and-storage-box>.

2)      Hauck, Drew. "Milk Crate." GrabCad. Web. 27 Jan. 2012. <http://grabcad.com/library/milk-crate>.

3)      Iskender, Serkan. "Office Chair." GrabCad.com. Web. 29 Jan. 2012. http://grabcad.com/library/office-chair.

4)      Izmailov, Vladimir. "Bicycle Fork for 26" Wheel” GrabCad.com. Web. 22 Apr. 2012. 
5)      Izmailov, Vladimir. "Bicycle headset” GrabCad.com. Web. 22 Apr. 2012.
6)      Keereweer, Jan. "Bicycle Locomotief." GrabCad.com. 28 Nov. 2011. Web. 30 Jan. 2012. Sherwill, Jeremy. "Mtb Handlebars." GrabCad. Web. 27 Jan. 2012. <http://grabcad.com/library/mtb-handlebars>.

7)      Stein, Robert. "Wheel 26"" GrabCad. Web. 27 Jan. 2012. <http://grabcad.com/library/26-wheel-559-25>.

8)      Välja, Tanel. "Bicycle Chain." GrabCad.com. 28 July 2011. Web. 30 Jan. 2012.

9)      Van Ruy, Stefan. "Manikin Test Dummy." GrabCad.com. 1 Dec. 2011. Web. 30 Jan. 2012.