Blog #6

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    For the working period of October 2nd-28th, Team 8 has successfully assembled over 80% of the Wheelchair Lifting Aid. After receiving the machined clamps to connect the H support to the wheelchair, the team has fitted the H support, seat base, linear actuator, plywood seat, and the hinges onto the wheelchair frame. The assembly of the wheelchair lifting aid thus far can be seen below in Figures 1 & 2.  

Figure 1: Under view of Wheelchair Lifting Aid

Figure 2: Front View of Wheelchair Lifting Aid

    Throughout the assembly process, the team encountered one unanticipated issue. This issue arose when connecting the hinges to the seat base where the cylindrical center piece of the hinge was restricting complete seat rotation. To allow the seat to achieve full rotation and clear the interferences with the hinge, the team installed a 1/8” aluminum sheet between the hinge and seat base. This modification can be seen in Figure 3 below. 

 
Figure 3: Additional Hinge Modification 

    Currently, the team is working towards addressing the crushing point underneath the arm rail of the wheelchair. The team has planned to install a thin plywood sheet to close access to this gap, and will be obtaining the necessary materials to install the sheet by October 31st. Furthermore the team is currently gathering the materials to install the necessary padding to the wheelchair seat, once final positioning and screw adjustments have been made for the seat. 

    For the working period of October 29-November 11th, the team is expecting to have a fully assembled device and thus is expecting to begin the validation process. The first round of experiments for the patient lifting process using the Wheelchair Lifting Aid will be conducted within the team members of Team 8. The team will gather the lifting force and angle of inclination of the caregiver, over several iterations of the patient lifting process to ensure the teams data measurement approach is accurate. This will allow the team to identify any issues with the patient lifting process that may skew the data gathering process, such as establishing where the patient should be grasping the caregiver and other instructions regarding the positioning of the patient with respect to the caregiver. Once establishing a set rules for the data gathering patient lifting process,  the team is expecting to gather the induced lumbar force and angle of inclination as functions of time for a variety of caregivers as part of the planned survey. The team will also conduct the structural analysis on the wheelchair lifting aid during this working period, which includes the new FEA analysis on the Wheelchair Lifting Aid and the plastic deformation testing using the strain gages. 

    Over the next two weeks the team is anticipating the plywood seat to receive further changes to ensure the patient can maintain a steady position as the linear actuator extends. Currently, to ensure the plywood seat does not endure any cracking or splintering during the repeated testing, the team has added a wooded brace to the rear side of the seat. The last issue the team has identified is that the selected battery may result in a lower than expected lifting speed, which may alter the lifting procedure due to the longer elapsed time of seat extension. To address this, the team will look into batteries which offer higher amperage or power density. 

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Blog # 3

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Blog #2

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The Wheelchair Lifting Aid Progress Over the work period April 1 - April 15, 2023, Team 8 is to finish the 3rd milestone (Sketches and 3D models created for the connecting parts and the selection of materials to be used). Team 8 has started a 3D CAD of the wheelchair frame shown in Fig. 1, which  is to be used to perform the force reaction and moment analysis for the lifting procedure through COMSOL. In addition to this analysis, the 3D CAD model is to detail how the seat mechanism is to be accommodated within the  modified structural frame of the wheelchair. Following, the components which connect the linear actuator to the wheelchair frame are to be sketched. Team 8 is to buy the linear actuator to use as reference and to follow the exact measurements closely during the development of the CAD model, since all these figures and designs are to be made following the dimensional constraints given by the wheelchair. Fig. 1 below, shows the base structure of the modified whee...
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Blog #1

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