ASEE Zone 2 Conference 2017

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Design and Construction of an Airplane Seat Adaptable Device for a Person with Cerebral Palsy

This is a design project of senior industrial engineering students sponsored by the General & Age Related Disabilities Engineering (GARDE) Program of the National Science Foundation (NSF) focusing on adults with disabilities. Most people that travel on airplanes have similar concerns: will I get to the airport on time? is my luggage overweight? did I get the window seat? For people with disabilities, traveling on airplanes comes with a few extra worries. In this case, we will be working with a subject that has Cerebral Palsy, a condition that causes his body to have involuntary movements. Currently, his caretakers must seat on both sides and constrain his entire body, specially his legs, to impede his movements from hurting him, or the people around him. The purpose of this project is to design, develop, and manufacture a device that can adapt to airplane seats to provide the necessary support, and constraint, needed for a cerebral palsy patient to avoid spasticity movements. This will also take care of the stress and the danger of construing his movements away from his caretakers. Using a design thinking method and morphological chart exercise, base on the literature revision that we did during the last semester, we created a preliminary design that we will be constructing and testing during this semester. The system usefulness will be evaluated by the identified user, his caretakers and health professionals knowledgeable in the condition of the user. The expected delivery of the device is by the end of the Spring semester 2017.

Author(s):

Michelle Gonzalez Arias Gonzalez-Arias    
Industrial Engineering
UPRM
Puerto Rico

Nicole Castiel    
Industrial Engineering
UPRM
Puerto Rico

 

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