Background/Motivation
The purpose of this project is to 3D print a storage compartment for Jake Anderson’s wheelchair.
Jake Anderson is a fellow UW-Madison mechanical engineering student. Just over a year ago, Jake broke his neck in a diving accident and severely damaged his spinal cord, leaving him a quadriplegic. Since the accident, Jake has made incredible progress and now has great movement in his left arm. Currently, Jake keeps his wallet in his backpack that is stored on the back of his wheelchair. When Jake is out and wants to buy something, someone has to go into Jake’s backpack and take out his money for him. The goal of this project is to create a storage compartment for Jake’s money so that he can access his cards and cash on his own.
Since Jake has good movement in his left arm, we will need to create a storage compartment that will attach underneath his right armrest so that Jake can access his money with his left hand. Pictures of Jake’s chair can be seen below. It also must be noted that Jake has limited dexterity in his fingers, so his cards and cash must be accessible with little to no finger use.
Ideas
– Our first idea was to make a drawer for Jake in which he could put all of his cards and cash into. We quickly realized that this was not feasible because Jake does not have the dexterity to pick up one card to get to another card.
– We would like to create a swivel or linkage T-Slot attachment so that the compartment can be removed or stored underneath the armrest.
– Have a compartment with “slots” for individual cards and a money clip. The cards need to be laying at an angle so that Jake can slide the cards of the slot onto his leg, rather than Jake pulling the cards out with his fingers. At first we thought that having the dividers at an angle within the compartment would be a good design, but ultimately decided to go with vertical walls as they will accomplish the same goal and will be easier to print.
– We also would like to implement a hinged door for the compartment. The door will ensure that the cards will not fall out while Jake is in his chair. Currently, we think that a door that hinges down towards Jake’s leg is the best approach as it will be easiest for him to open and close.
Requirements
– The compartment for Jake’s chair needs to be able to attach to the T-slot found underneath his armrest (see sketch below for t-slot dimensions).
– The compartment needs to extend out at least 3″ so that Jake will be able to access it and grab his cards and cash from underneath his armrest.
– The design must consider Jake’s limited dexterity in his fingers. The cards need to be very easy to access with limited dexterity. The ideal slot size would be 1.5″ x 1.6″ which allows the card to sit at a 45.1 degree angle.
– The compartment needs to house at least 3 cards and a money clip. The wallet cannot be any longer than the 7.25″ dimensions provided by Jake, otherwise certain items won’t be reachable.
-The wallet needs to be less than 4″ from top to bottom to ensure that the cards/money clip are accessible by Jake. Anything larger than that would make it difficult for Jake.
– The compartment must fit to the required dimensions provided by Jake (again see below).
– The cards and money need to be secure.
Sketch of rough wallet dimensions.